Semester 2--So Far So Great

I don't want to jinx it (they could just be on their beginning-of-the-semester best behavior) but I'm in love with my students this semester. I have a fair amount of students from my last semester classes, which is great, but on the whole, all five of my classes have a pleasantly surprising percentage of respectful, interested students. It may sound pessimistic, but after some of what I dealt with last semester, and, worse, from the horror stories of some of my colleagues, this really is something to be grateful for.

I have the same intensive schedule--all five classes on two days--but instead of 5 sections of the same course (Basic 1) like I had last semester, I now have three Basics, and two Intermediates in the evenings. And the Intermediates...it's a fresh of breath air not to have to repeat myself twice more after already doing so three times. It's fun to be able to incorporate more conversation practice (they can actually hold them) and it's great because they can give more creative (and amusing) responses in oral drills. For example, we were working on the conditional, and one of the provided statements was "If you don't get married..." and they had to complete the sentence. When one student responded, "If you don't get married, you might have to get a pet." I couldn't help but smile, and even more so when he added, "It's cheaper." We also have been working on time contrasts: "In the past people...In the present people...In the future people will..." We did a drill where each student gives three statements about a person (the idea was it would be a famous person) and the rest of the class had to guess who it was. My two favorites: "In the past she was a he. Now she sells many records (but I don't like them). In the future she will probably die of a drug overdose." Lady Gaga anyone? And this one, bet you can't guess who it is: "In the past she lived in another country. Now she teaches English in Chile. In the future she will speak Spanish very well." :)

And it's not just a case of teacher's bias. After subbing for me last week, a colleague expressed similar amazement at how great my classes are, asking if we could please switch. There's no way, especially when my other sub told me how distraught my students were when "Miss Megan" wasn't there and how concerned they had been over whether I would be coming back. Ah, my heart. It's that kind of thing that makes all the lame excuses for missing class, all the times they won't stop talking in Spanish, and all the times that they won't open their mouths to participate no matter how I threaten, totally worth it.