Thursday, August 31, 2006

Teaching in Spanglish - I Still Got that Fire

God is so good! That's what I thought this morning as I drove to work. It was around 6:50 a.m. and the sun was rising above the water in a bright pink. I had never seen the sun look so beautiful. I listened to Praise & Worship music and praised God the whole way. Sunrise - the start of a new day. Ironically, ,the song that came on was "New Day" by Avalon, this great Christian group I enjoy listening to. By the title, you can see....yep, I am back in the classroom.




I signed up to a subsitute in another school district, and my heart is just filling with joy as I teach again. I had the wonderful opportunity to teach bilingual classes this week. At first when they called me on Monday, I agreed but prayed, (b/c my Spanish is not perfect) that I would make it through the day. Fortunately when I arrived, the little 2nd graders were talking English! I was suprised! Then one of the little girls told me, "We learn both Spanish and English." Wow! What a neat program! It was so neat to point to the pictures and say "libro - book, espejo- mirror." The little girls told me I was beautiful and called me "Miss Pretty." I couldn't stop blushing. I learned from them as they learned from me - a super awesome experience.

I had high schoolers yesterday, that age of "I know who I am" "I know everything" and I'll think about respecting you. I don't mind high school, but there are a lot of "knowitalls" and that can be irritating when the students think they know more than me, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it! Before I forget to mention, the power went out FOUR times, so there I was sweating for 30 mins and hearing freshmen whine about "I can't breathe." There was one window up high, so there was no way I could it open. We were trying to read all in the dark! At least, we got dismissed early! I got to teach Spanish once again. There were some kids who come from a culture that knows both America and Mexico, and they KNOW that we have it so much better here, and they actually appreciate it! Now, how's that for some maturity?

I realized today with my 6th graders when they started hugging me and drawing me pictures and telling all their friends how nice I am - that, I still got that fire. A motivational speaker was talking to kids once then he shifted to the teachers and said, "And you TEACHERS, what happened to that fire? Why don't you smile at the kids anymore? Why dont you love your job anymore? Don't you know that these kids NEED you." No words about teaching had ever touched me as much. They rang back at me today as I stood there outside the classroom door, somewhat baking in the heat, but watching the children and saying inside "I belong here."

What more can I say? I am thinking of delaying grad school; I get so attached. But I keep thinking that right now, I am young and I should get it over with. It's always been the plan to go directly to grad school. I also have this wild hair about getting ceritified in bilingual edu. BUT, it costs so much - the whole teacher certification - not to mention the time.
I don't know... God knows though.
;)

1 comment:

Karla said...

Something tells me you were meant to be a teacher. I say go with what makes you happy :)