Learning How to Teach

I am now in my second week of teaching English to the staff and leaders here at Plan Escalon. I teach a class at 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock. As you can imagine, this has been a challenge. Except for dance, I have never taught a day in my life. Now I'm teaching English in a language I am just learning myself. Yeeeah.

Needless to say, some days have been better than others. To be frank, it has been frustrating. I want my students, who are also my friends outside of class, to learn a lot, but at the same time I want them to have fun while learning. It's a difficult balance. I have been making them memorize their favorite verse in English, learn a certain amount of verbs a day and practice speaking English in conversation. 9 and 12 have quickly become my least favorite parts of the day. I don't want that. I have other jobs here, but teaching is my main one. I want to enjoy it if possible.

So I have spent a lot of the last week and a half in prayer. What am I supposed to do? How can I use my gifts to teach these adults? Yesterday, I woke up with the answer. I love to teach dance. Why is that? Because it's interactive. I have never been one to learn by sitting and listening to lecture, so why would I think I would teach like that?

This morning, my class took a field trip. I took them out around campus and just talked. We discussed what we saw. Rocks, trees, buildings, anything and everthing. I then took them back to my kitchen where we talked about potatoes, cabbage and knives. They were so exicited to be doing something other than memorizing verbs from a dry-erase board they made me a Honduran breakfast. It was wonderful. I love Honduran food or "comida Hondurana".

To sum it all up, God is faithful. I really believe the eureka moment I had yesterday morning was not my own thought but straight from God. My students said they learned more today than all of the other days my class combined. I am learning how to teach. Or better, I am learning how I teach. It's a good feeling.