Meet E. I met him in the parking lot of ALA. He was looking through SAT note cards and trying to memorize some of the vocab that even trick native English speakers. He came up to me, huge smile, introduced himself, and started telling me about his crash SAT course he was in. Looking over the words, I thought it would be very teacher of me to offer some advice. I asked if he had ever used visual learning/drawings to remember words before. I gave him my best impression of "irate" and told him to draw a picture of it. He smiled and humbly told me that he had just wrote an article on visual learning that would be published in one of the national magazines next month. He said he'd be more than happy to send me a copy when it was out.
Meet H. From Morocco, this young woman is living on my floor in the dorms. She's talented, polite, and has a contagious personality. I found out today that she gave a speech last year in front of a large crowd that Bono was part of. Bono was so touched by her speech, he quoted her several times last year on television.
Meet my psychology classes. They are a teacher's dream. They're polite, curious, devoted to learning, want to do their homework, come in on time, and ask great questions. I've had several students, not in my class, ask to just pop in because they have a free period and love psychology. Who does that?
As I was on duty tonight, a girl had a pretty scary panic attack. Students ran to help, grabbed blankets, grabbed water, took her pulse, and supported her.
Each student here has big dreams. Each has passion. They all have drive. David told me today that a common phrase used around here is "The kids are our drug." Despite some of the frustrations of being here (i.e. no resources, text books, or organization) its the truth. The kids are going to make this job worthwhile.
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