That's more like it

I'm grateful to be teaching classes I enjoy even more than at the last school.

What's the difference?

1. These days, I don't teach any literature classes. I never hated them but prefer the content in courses like the Grammar classes and Spelling classes I'm now responsible for. That stuff is my jam!

2. For the first time in Honduras, I teach 11th graders (who are actually high school seniors according to the way my new school is structured). The seniors are better equipped to handle conversations and creative writing assignments I probably wouldn't try with younger kids.

3. The experience of teaching 6th and 7th grade is also new this year. I admit I was concerned that their mentality and behavior might be too much like the things that make me never want to teach elementary school, but I have been pleasantly surprised.
Working in my favor is the fact that this year's 7th grade only has seven students!

4. Even the textbooks are better. The Houghton Mifflin English books I taught from before were of use but not the best fit for the background and cultural environment of these Central American kiddos. Too many unimportant topics and references Honduran kids would need extra explanation for, and all this for the sake of understanding details that won't benefit the lives of even those who go on to live in the states or study in U.S. colleges and universities. 

5. Each class from 6th grade through 11th grade has only one section. I don't remember feeling too annoyed to teach the same lesson twice every day in the past, but maybe 'one and done' is more desirable to me.

Scarred

Some of my Honduran adult ESL learners carry wounds from past classroom experiences. Unfortunately, they have a lot of fear when it comes to using the pieces of language they already know.

The reason? Some previous teacher reacted too roughly or else made the classroom feel hostile instead of safe, doing things like snapping at students for making an error in pronunciation or grammar.

Sometimes a teacher can have too little sensitivity or empathy when it comes to the experience of learners (especially foreign students learning a second language). Plus, sometimes there are folks that hold teaching positions despite having no gift, training, or experience as an educator. And that kind of situation definitely doesn't come with a guarantee that the person leading the classroom will treat learners carefully.

All of this means my job sometimes involves persuading and relaxing a student...making him or her feel safe enough to move beyond the fear of trying.

Music To My Ears

So I really love to hear live strings. It's actually one of my all-time favorite things.

I'm happy today because I just remembered that the university in my new town will give me access to something the previous town could not boast:

My #1 Turn-off

In Honduras, the thing I am instantly uninterested in and turned off by when I encounter it is...

People from the United States!

(HAHA)

In all seriousness - for some reason, when I'm here I sometimes have a low tolerance for situations involving tourists from the U.S.

Probably sounds weird coming from me since I'm not actually a native Honduran, but go figure.

He really cuts to the chase!

"There is no trespass in your entire history that you deserve to be able to hold against the person who trespassed against you."

That's something God said to me out of the blue in Honduras.

Flashback

Back in July, my notable day-before-leaving-Copán thought process began with this sense:
to spend two years with a relatively connected community of people and then leave (possibly) never to see any of them again is definitely weird. 

A moment later I realized this phenomenon isn't actually so foreign to my experience through life.

It dawned on me that what made leaving Copán seem so strange was that the community had impacted me profoundly and made me a different (better) person. It felt weird to be potentially losing that community forever. 

So now, I suppose I can do no less than salute Copán Ruinas -- living in that world made me a better human, a better teacher, a better judge of what's really important to me and what I actually require to be happy, a better manager of work/life balance, and a better communicator. It was good to have been there.

I'm Back

Got so wrapped up in establishing a life in the new town that I forgot about getting back to my blog!

Santa Rosa has been home for the past two months, and it feels really nice. In fact, I seem to be enjoying both the town and the school more than where I lived and worked for the first two years in Honduras. Thanks be to God.

Anyways, I intend to return to the habit of posting a few times a week. And I expect to have some interesting developments to report on over the course of the next year or so.