Curve Balls, Part 2

Like I said in the last post, life here is unexpected and surprising all the time. Well, much of the time.

But as I'm learning, though it's not my plan A, it's not always bad.

Another recent example... Nan, one of the friendliest Lao teachers, came into our office one day asking if any of us could teach for the upcoming 6 week M.A. class. Classes started that next week. They met at night, until 8:15 pm. I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed with my teaching load and all of the different (good!) opportunities going on. So I told him I could teach one night a week. I started preparing for class, only to find out the next day that they didn't need me to teach anymore.

A week and a half passes. Nan comes to visit again. One of the teachers had to drop out. Four weeks left in the course and they ask me again if I can teach. 2 nights a week. I'm not super thrilled but they're in a pinch so I agree.

Again not my plan A, but we are here to help as best we can so...

Man, am I glad I sometimes am willing to surrender my plan A. 

Teaching the M.A. class has been such a wonderful experience. I'd forgotten what it was like to teach a class that actually understands. A class where nobody has to translate for another student in Lao. Where I can make a joke and everybody laughs.

Don't get me wrong. I love teaching my other classes. But these last two weeks have been a breath of fresh air as I've had the opportunity to teach Lao educators who are hungry to improve their English and be more effective teachers themselves.

We're studying about extensive reading - basically that means reading in easier passages in bulk rather than reading short difficult passages. After 5 months of teaching a reading book to a group of students where I'd say about 5% of the class understands about 60% of the text, and 40% understands less than 20% of the text, I have such a heart to see reading methods adapted to the needs of students.

We started off the MA class reading the ESL version of Robinson Crusoe. Yesterday, to practice summarizing, the students acted out the main events in the book. They've been reading a book a week (no small feat for these students who teach all day and then study all evening) and when it came time to let them choose their next book they were like kids at Christmas. Such eager looks on their faces. So excited.

And as a teacher that made me excited too.

It's been such an unexpected blessing to be able to spend time with these teachers and see their love for reading grow.

It's been a curve ball that I've rather enjoyed these past two weeks :)