The upside of teaching English to low-level kids

Next Monday is my last day teaching English to kids at an afterschool program. It has been a stretching and challenging job for me, and it was the right time to move on.

Despite the fact that I had my reasons for wanting to quit, now that it’s getting closer to the end, it’s easier for me to be positive about the experience. It wasn’t all bad, and here are some of the highlights and memories that make me a bit sad to leave it all behind:

– The little victories I feel when I’m actually able to understand what the kids are saying to me in Czech. I still have a lot of problems understanding and speaking Czech with strangers, but I’ve gotten so much better understanding basic sentences (most of all “muzu na zachod”, which means “can I use the bathroom”) that the kids say. Definitely a confidence booster for my Czech ability.
– The excitement in some kids’ faces when they come up before class to show me something new they have and try to say it in English.
– When one of the kids accidentally called me Ms. Christmas instead of Ms. Kristen when we were learning about Christmas.
– When my forth and fifth graders tried to teach me Czech and laughed at my attempt to pronounce difficult words.
– Some of the kids brought me Christmas presents! I only see them once a week for 45 minutes, so I wasn’t expecting anything.
– The struggles of my first graders to understand and say the difference between “three” and “tree” and their general tongue confusion when trying to make the “th” sound.
– Everyone thinks “blue” and “glue” sound exactly the same.
– That moment when someone finally understands something I’ve been trying to explain and they say “ohh takhle!” (Which means ohh that way!).
– The smart kids who save my lesson by translating what I say to the kids who are completely lost.
– My sixth and seventh graders’ unshakable obsession with pizza, dragons, and pizza dragons (whatever that means).

Maybe I’ll keep adding to the list over my last few lessons just to remind me that it has been a good run. Teaching English to groups of kids without knowing their native language is not for everyone and it’s not without its challenges, but it doesn’t mean it hasn’t had it’s share of fun, rewarding, and comical moments.