English Class

What a good class I had today! Last week we didn't meet because it was spring break and my students were busy with trips and such. They came to class today excited about sharing their adventures.

My shy, struggling student, J, arrived with a friend. She told me that her friend had just arrived from their native country. She told me in English! I just watched in amazement as she chatted away, introducing her friend to the other students. In English. She probably spoke more English today than she has spoken this entire year! The visitor friend is an engineer in her native country and has come here to learn English at The University of St. Thomas, so she can be more proficient in her job back home. After seeing the positive effect she had on J, I allowed her to join the class. That makes 6 students. That's enough! The room is crowded.

M, a student from Iran, explained that the Persian New Year is the first day of spring. She journaled about how her family celebrated this holiday. It was very interesting, to me, and to the students. They asked her a lot of questions.

We studied numbers -- I actually decided that the lesson was going to be too easy. I wrote things like . . . Three hundred twenty-five and they were supposed to write 325. No, it wasn't too easy. One student wrote 300 but then couldn't decide what to do with the "twenty-five." Eighteen was written as 80. I stressed that they needed to learn to write the numbers both ways. My Thai student said, "Yes, because you need to know that to write a check!" Of course! Although, I'm sure some of them never write checks, they still need to know how.
I'm going to develop a lesson that will include how to write the numbers and how to write checks.
We only did a little work on verbs. I told them I didn't want to "wear them out" as far as verbs were concerned. Blank faces. So, we learned . . .wear you out. . . worn out, etc.

It is so exciting to see learning happening. That is why I teach!