Much Better Equipped

Written by Jadon:

Well, I have officially graduated from my first crash-course class in ESL—and by graduated, I mean that we literally had a mini, in-class graduation with one of our teachers calling out names, and each of us filing to the front of the room to receive our official (Wheaton College-sealed and embossed) “diploma” and handshake/hug from both of our teachers while the rest of the class cheered and clapped.  At one point there was chanting and a speech, and I really wouldn’t have been surprised if someone pulled out a camera.  But as silly as this sounds and was, I can’t deny that, even as an almost 25 year old male, it was a bit exciting, and here is why:

Except for helping a few peers find their way through some difficult math problems on quite a few occasions in high school, and this one time I ended up telling a hundred or so African children the story of David and Goliath; I have zero teaching experience. Zero. And here I am about to move overseas to teach English to a bunch of Czechs for a full year.  Granted, Brittany is going too and she has three plus years in a classroom and a Master’s Degree in Teaching—not that she isn’t still nervous—but I was planning on surviving on her expertize.  I believe the term for that is ignorance. Not that it can’t be done that way, but, honestly, I probably would have frozen in the snow due to the fact that I failed to realize I needed shoes much less a coat, hat, and gloves.

And yes, I was a bit nervous/scared to teach, but I was blissfully ignorant of what a teaching position would actually demand of me. So there I was on my first day of class, textbook in hand and massive 3-ring binder filled with half a ream of paper weighing down my backpack.  Seriously, you can kind of tell in the picture, but that binder is full of at least 300 pages of note sheets and interactive handouts. And I should have taken that as a sign for just how unprepared I was to teach ESL for a year.

Five days of class later—that’s 30 hours of work with three to four topics a day, most of which could have been 30 hour courses in and of themselves—we mentally panted to a halt.  But let me tell you, we had the best two teachers.  They pushed us, but they truly want us to succeed.  And even though I am actually more overwhelmed now than I was on Monday morning, I know that I am so so much better equipped to handle my classroom and our year overseas.  Not only do I know how much I learned, but also a couple of the best teachers of ESL in the field are confident in my ability to teach and are proud of my hard work and continued desire to be the best ESL teacher I can be, and that is why our little graduation was so meaningful.

So week one is done, and though I am more overwhelmed, I am way more prepared to lead a classroom.

Now on to week two and a new class: Grammar…Ick.