STORiES. REFLECTiONS. MUSiNGS. CONFESSiONS.


30 May 2010

Exhausted but uplifted



I have been very challenged lately. I am in a teacher-training placement at a Skills Centre to practice teaching English to adults - 8:30 - 2:30 every tuesday and thursday. I am learning so much I am exhausted for days afterwards. I am still figuring out how this is going to all work out for me - this too is exhausting, and as a result, I am deflated and beat. Not to mention all the Grammar I have to brush up on - subordinate conjunction anyone?

But one thing that does not exhuast me is listening to the student's stories - they are from every corner of the earth it seems - Ethiopia, Congo (Brassaville, not Dem. Repub), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, a small farming village in Punjab, India and Mumbai, Ecuador, Peru and El Salvador, Korea, Japan, China, Romania, Czech...and they are here for many different reasons and all have different levels of motivation to learn English as a result.

The farmer from the village in Punjab farmed rice and raised Bison, as he called them - large horned cows really. His computer skills were just barely there when I sat with him for an online listening activity - using one finger and not knowing how handy that backspace key was. We laughed about how much computer time our kids have on our home computers - there is no time left for us - I have a laptop however, he does not. He calls himself "Lucky". I wonder what his name was in Punjab amongst the Bison. I wonder if he dreams of rice paddies.

Another woman, the one from Romania, told the class in her beautiful, careful English, that she met her current husband on a cruise in the thousand islands here in Lake Ontario. The curious in the class could not help themselves and had to ask many questions in English. "Where were your parents and family? Was his family there? was it love at first sight as they call it? your family was there, right?

I taught a lesson in Canadian history for one of the classes - these are settlement classes that require Canadian content as well as language - I stepped back afterwards and saw what a MESS the whiteboard was. I write way too big - and it was all over the place - its like seeing your soul on whiteboard.

One of my teacher-trainers asked me to read a few paragraphs for the students to listen to for pronunication.
The student from Peru said my voice sounded like "GPS lady". Another said I sounded like "radio".

I am smiling inside, my face is too tired to smile - need to go to bed... so grateful for the random bits - they are what keep me going - and interestingly, what keep me in the moment and yank me out of the future  - which is where I fret  lately... I am grateful .




18 comments:

  1. Very beautiful! I too love the international environments. You learn so much.
    I do also understand that you are exhausted, being under "judgement" while trying to find "your way" is exhausting.
    Lots of hugs and good luck!

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  2. Lucky! In Punjab most people have pet names or nick names.... as their given names are pretty long. 'Lucky' is a relative easy and not so funny pet name compared to ones I have heard like Guddu,Bubbly,Pinky and so on. What a great way to peek into other cultures..

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  3. interesting yogsavy! did not know this - we also have a 30 something female students from India, (though I don't know if it is Punjab), who calls herself "Shiny"...:)

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  4. Lol! you just discovered one! Most of them have interesting stories about how they got their nick name

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  5. What a wonderful experience. I love your line about seeing a bit of yourself on whiteboard.

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  6. GPS lady will you drive my car?

    Sounds really great, what you are doing!

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  7. I will have to ask them how they got their nicknames - maybe derivative of their first names...which I will not publish here if I find out :)

    Hey Lori!

    mm...i seem to recall a song...

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  8. Wow, what a rich experience. You could just sit there and talk about your grocery list and it's a class lesson. I love it.

    But oh my god, am I going to have to accompany my kids on all their dates when they get older? Because just shoot me now please.

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  9. WanderK -:) - nooo! unless you really want to...

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  10. I teach ESL, and your post reminded me of all that's wonderful about it, so thanks!

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  11. hi Lynne - yes, I recall that - what level do you teach?

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  12. I love hearing other peoples' stories! It shows the universal and the divergence of human kind. I hope you will post some more of them here. Teaching really opens you up doesn't it? I imagine all the neural connections buzzing inside my head and hopefully in my students' heads. I always wonder about the collective connections between each class member and the teacher. I imagine they are powerfully charged when true learning takes place. It is a wonderful thing.

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  13. Great stuff! I'd like to hear more stories too - and you'd never guess all these great stories lurking in our suburbs, would you?
    Mary

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  14. Hi, Marcella! Gee, what a wonderful post here. Don't we just become so enriched when we connect with folks with different stories, and don't we feel a kind of shared experience with them? Think "vicarious" . . .

    PS I'm back.

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  15. Marcella,
    This post really made me smile. I think teaching is the moon.
    I have been brushing up on my english and all the fun things that left my mind after all these years. I have no motivation for it BUT, I'm forcing myself to read my book every night!
    I laughed out loud when you wrote subordinate conjunction anyone? Yes please!

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  16. I love this post. I love meeting new people, new ideas, new cultures, new thoughts. What a wonderful opportunity for you!!

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  17. I wish I could have such an enthusiastic teacher at some point of my life. I used to be a teacher of English to kids at school in my home country and they never had a motivation. Hope, they will find it someday. good luck - I like the way you write)

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  18. An unforgettable experience)

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