I am excited, don't help

If you have read my post "I am desperate...", I must tell you today was one of the most beautiful teaching days I have ever had. After one of my English lessons, two students, 16 years old, came up to me and said in Czech: We 'd like to tell you that we really enjoy your lessons and thank you very much...." I told them in English: Great, thank you, too, but you are supposed to speak English to me. So they said it again in English. A couple of seconds later I had tears in my eyes. If you ever happen to teach, this kind of thing is hard to describe, if you know what I mean. I can't wait to go back and teach them again.

ANd I must admit, that half of my success is based on my TEFL course experience. without that TEFL course, I would make several psychological mistakes that I can avoid now.

FOr example, yesterday, when I was teaching that class for the first time, I noticed one girl ignored me from the beginning to the end of the lesson. She was also wearing a T shirt with a big KISS MY... sign on it. Other teachers told me she is a difficult case. Listen to what happened today. I came to the classroom and asked Does anyone of you have perfect pitch? (they are all excellent musicians, it is a musical high school). Guess who raised her hand - Sasha, the KISS MY girl. I said to the class OK let's test Sasha! I asked her to close her eyes and I played a random tone on the piano. She named the tone without hesitation, immediately. Another three or four tones, she got all correct!!! HOw do you do that? SHe said: I don't know, no idea. I said Are you a witch? (joking, of course). SHe said no. I think she felt I liked her and that I had no problem with her shirts, dreadlocks and ignoring me or not - believe me or not, she actively participated in the rest of the class, taking notes, paying attention, doing the presentation part, etc.

A miracle or something? I don't think so. Maybe it is a good idea to find something positive or great about the most difficult students and they will like you.

The whole class respects me, and Sasha is not wearing that T shirt any more.

Thank you Ed, my first American teacher, thank you guys from the TEFL group in Prague. Teaching English can be exciting. Life , too, I guess, even with awfully early mornings...