Now I Understand

why people like to teach. But only sometimes. Because, even though I'm teaching the same material to class after class, it really doesn't ever get boring. You're always on your toes, trying to keep a step ahead of the students. Plus, I'm teaching Spanish, which we all KNOW isn't my best subject, so I have to work just to make sure that I'm more competent than my students.

It's INCREDIBLY difficult. There are disciplinary problems here that I would never have even IMAGINED back in the suburbs. Also, there's no money, and it's really hard to accept sometimes. I have one class in which there aren't enough chairs for all of my students, and six of them have to stand in the back, or sit on the radiator. ALl in all the Spanish department has 100 books, while we have almost 400 students. We can't ever ask students to bring materials to class, because they can't afford them. And TVs for the classrooms? Don't make me laugh.

Also, it's tragic how undereducated some of my students are. Some of them can barely spell--remember that I teach high school and middle school. At least I'm teaching introductory Spanish, so they shouldn't HAVE to be overly literate.

My largest class, of 34 students, has 8 students who are completely literate, while the rest know nothing about spanish. So, in effect, it is now two classes going on at once, both begging for my attention at all time.

And there's one young lady who doesn't speak any English. This, of course, is not overly difficult for her in my class, but we don't have an ESL program, and it's killing me to imagine this poor girl in class every day without the ability to understand what her teachers are saying.

At the same time, it's always engaging, and so many of the kids are so wonderful. It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with these little mini-people--and this is coming from me, who has always claimed to dislike kids.

I think I"m getting the hang of it now, though. Maybe. I guess that I'll find out next week, when regular schedule's kick in and I have to do content classes every day of every week. But for now, I'm golden, for now, I'm doing all right. For now.

J