The Day I Learned I’m Meant to Teach

Those who follow this blog know that teaching here in Baku has been challenging for me. There have certainly been highs and lows, and at some points I felt pretty disheartened by having students who would not do their work or played on their phones in class. But while the lows have been low, highs have really uplifted me.

Recently I had a student apply for a State Department program that would allow him to travel to the US. He said he got the confidence to apply thanks to my class. I had students tell me they love me. Yes, love. Moments like that remind me of why I started teaching in the first place, but wanting to be something and knowing it is truly a good fit for you are two different things. Today I got the ultimate validation that teaching is what I am meant to be doing right now.

I had a pretty rough, whirlwind of a weekend personally. It started with an unpleasant conversation at the office, right before it was time to go home. It spiraled down, when I heard some unfortunate news. All the things that transpired, have been weighing on me as I had plenty of free time over this long weekend. My mind has been going non-stop trying to figure out solutions to my problems.

And then today rolled in and I had a lesson with one of my undergrad classes. For that hour, all my troubles melted away. I forgot about everything, and I was in the zone. I enjoyed hearing my students telling me about their weekend activities and doing the assignments I gave them in class. We worked on narration a lot, so the students came up with funny and creative stories that uplifted me and turned my frown upside down, literally. I felt enthusiastic, and was able to check all my problems at the door to engage my students and indeed I left feeling exhilarated.

When you can let all the personal bs go and get in the zone doing something, you know that something is what you’re meant to do. I cannot wait for my next teaching post.

I Love My Students

A good part of this blog has been dedicated to my teaching struggles. Certainly, the challenges have been abundant and I stand behind every word.

But yesterday something amazing happened: I had a great lesson and left feeling HAPPY. Until the now the best I could expect was “not livid”, but this new group of students is something else. What’s the difference? This group actually wants to learn; they’re engaged and interested. They do the activities I ask them to do and elaborate on them independently in class. In this last lesson, for example, we were doing this Halloween activity (I didn’t get to do a Halloween lesson with them before) in which we create a spooky story together: every student adds a line. The story quickly went from scary to silly, and it reminded my kids of this national tale/myth, which they excitedly told me about. It was so awesome to see them so enthused to tell me about this and hear them use their English to do so.

They are also very curious about America, which I appreciate. They had tons of questions for me and asked if we could talk about Boston in the next lesson. Naturally, I agreed and I am so excited to implement this lesson. Honestly, if there is one thing I learned from this experience so far it’s that the most important quality in a student is will. When students want to learn, it is easy to teach to them. And it’s fun, too. I can sincerely say I am looking forward to tomorrow’s lesson and telling my students all about the amazing city of Boston, my home. This group inspires me to keep working hard and improving as a teacher, because my efforts have a positive outcome.

PS- as if I didn’t love them enough, after class I heard my students say that I’m pretty in Russian (the vain diva in me really got kick out that one).

A Halloween Special

As I mentioned a few times before, I have been struggling with my class of first years at the university. They tend to have a short attention span and many of them act disruptively. Last time it got so bad that I literally wanted to leave the classroom. Since today is the most important day of the year, Halloween, I planned a special lesson that included a listening passage about American Halloween traditions, us all creating a spooky story together, a make-believe college Halloween party, and a screening of Michael Jackson’s class, Thriller.

I thought this all sounded like a lot of fun, but I was really nervous that the students would not respond well and not cooperate. I was extra nervous since I put more heart than usual into planning this. At first, my concerns proved to be valid; I walked into the classroom a bit early to set up, and it was full but many students simply left, without so much as an excuse. One of the guys who left tried to provide some flimsy reasoning, but it was such a lame excuse that I literally felt like he was mocking me. I know these kids are mostly just irresponsible and do not care about improving their English skills so I should not take it personally, but this time I did. I did not say anything, but I felt physically ill and had to sit down for a few minutes before starting the lesson (which now had significantly less students).

Despite my initial discouragement, I pulled it together. I focused on the fact that the kids who were in the room are the ones who are serious about learning and they are worthy of my full attention. So I kicked off the lesson and was amazed at how responsive and engaged my students were.

They listened in total silence as I explained Halloween to them, and were clearly paying attention based on the comprehension questions I followed up with and really wanted to know more about Halloween. They also avidly participated in creating the communal story, with almost every student contributing a piece. It was the best class I had with this group so far, and I hope it will be the stepping stone for many more. If nothing else it renewed my faith in this group and in my own ability to capture  their attention and come up with activities they enjoy. It felt good to know that a good number of my students really do care, because really that is my only requirement as a teacher.

In addition to having a successful class, I felt like I connected with my students today. They told me what was going on in their lives, I sympathized, they asked me about my Halloween plans, we talked about costumes… it was awesome. And it’s moments like this that make all the research, planning, and struggles absolutely worth it.

Happy Halloween!