Now this entry is nothing too exciting, just hmmm... it is for me ... erm ...
I have been a freelance EFL teacher for 12 years now. I mostly work on one-to-one basis.
That often means the 'human touch' is somewhat deeper than the usual daily encounter, mind you, spending 45, 60, 90 minutes with the same person each time. I am lucky I can get to know the very best face of each of my students.
Years ago there was a boy (13) I ‘taught’ for a couple of years. It was not teaching in the traditional sense, rather talking about things he was interested in, in English of course. Luckily he always managed to express what he wanted to.
He spoke good English (he used to spend most of his free time playing games on the computer, later programming, styling computer houses ). His focus was mainly the IT world and other craft projects. I was just listening to him, as I remember, asking him questions, things.
Later we kind of became friends, I was not teaching him any more, but he took me gliding, we went hiking, talked a lot. He went to the USA as an exchange student, we often talked on Skype, I read his Myspace blog etc.
To tell you the truth he has always been the kind of student who seems to me much more intelligent than I have ever been, ever would be. Even when he was ‘just’ a kid I really appreciated the guy he would become one day.
After some years I met this boy. It was amazing! Now I am still an EFL teacher, the setting has slightly changed however. Now I rely mostly on the Internet, I have a PLN, I do learn something daily, I may say my strong point is ICT in EFL.
It was amazing how we were still able to understand each other’s ideas, he is a student at a technical university, studying IT engineering I guess, he has lots of other projects as well.
It was shocking: we think in the same way about certain things . Hardly ever do I find such a like-minded person around me! And he was a schoolboy when I was already a teacher.
Thrilling. There comes the question: Would I ever have become a techy EFL teacher if I had not had the opportunity to talk to that young boy back then in 2001 or so? Well, that time I was not especially enthusiastic about computers. Was it my flair for finding the sparkle in certain kids?
Now I think that gamer boy hugely contributed to what I have become in my profession, added a lot to the person I am now. Thank you, I feel fine!
Very true that teachers have immense influence on students future lives. But never forget it might be mutual :) Just listen to them.
That often means the 'human touch' is somewhat deeper than the usual daily encounter, mind you, spending 45, 60, 90 minutes with the same person each time. I am lucky I can get to know the very best face of each of my students.
Years ago there was a boy (13) I ‘taught’ for a couple of years. It was not teaching in the traditional sense, rather talking about things he was interested in, in English of course. Luckily he always managed to express what he wanted to.
He spoke good English (he used to spend most of his free time playing games on the computer, later programming, styling computer houses ). His focus was mainly the IT world and other craft projects. I was just listening to him, as I remember, asking him questions, things.
Later we kind of became friends, I was not teaching him any more, but he took me gliding, we went hiking, talked a lot. He went to the USA as an exchange student, we often talked on Skype, I read his Myspace blog etc.
To tell you the truth he has always been the kind of student who seems to me much more intelligent than I have ever been, ever would be. Even when he was ‘just’ a kid I really appreciated the guy he would become one day.
After some years I met this boy. It was amazing! Now I am still an EFL teacher, the setting has slightly changed however. Now I rely mostly on the Internet, I have a PLN, I do learn something daily, I may say my strong point is ICT in EFL.
It was amazing how we were still able to understand each other’s ideas, he is a student at a technical university, studying IT engineering I guess, he has lots of other projects as well.
It was shocking: we think in the same way about certain things . Hardly ever do I find such a like-minded person around me! And he was a schoolboy when I was already a teacher.
Thrilling. There comes the question: Would I ever have become a techy EFL teacher if I had not had the opportunity to talk to that young boy back then in 2001 or so? Well, that time I was not especially enthusiastic about computers. Was it my flair for finding the sparkle in certain kids?
Now I think that gamer boy hugely contributed to what I have become in my profession, added a lot to the person I am now. Thank you, I feel fine!
Very true that teachers have immense influence on students future lives. But never forget it might be mutual :) Just listen to them.
1 comment:
Grat, ez nagyon jó írás!
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