The last lesson

Wednesday 13th, October. The moment came for me to say “goodbye” to all those students who made me feel so comfortable for more than a month; it was the end of the practice period.

When I started Workshop IV this year I thought that it was going to be the most difficult workshop we had ever had and that planning every single lesson would represent a daunting task. Contrary to my expectations, the practice period turned out to be a challenging but invaluable experience. It was just necessary to get started with the plans and to get to know the students a bit each lesson. Then things started flowing naturally.

During the month I spent at Normal I I learned a lot of things. Surprisingly for me, I´ve discovered that I feel quite more at ease working with adolescents than with kids. Teenagers allow one to be ironic, to mock at them and at yourself freely –without hurting their feelings, of course-, to carry out a systematization with the certainty that they have or they haven´t understood. Teenagers are more challenging and more demanding than children in terms of explanations and justifications. If you don´t know whether, say, the passive voice is clear for them or not don´t worry: they´ll immediately let you know. Teenagers usually value the effort one makes to prepare handouts, to take photocopies, to find interesting topics and to correct homework. Perhaps they don´t express it, but be sure that they know that one prepares the lessons if one does so, they know that we go to bed late, they know that we will explain things twenty times if that is necessary and they know that, in our case, we are trainees who want to make the most of our period in their class and that we want to graduate in order to see our dream come true.

The last lesson was highly emotive. I was about to burst into tears at all times. Everything went as planned and fortunately no one missed the lesson. I had prepared lots of funny activities for them to enjoy the lesson and to unwind, but without forgetting that it was an English lesson. I tried to leave an imprint in their lives, so I showed them Susan Boyle´s video (see previous post) and I also read a story for them. As a gift, I had prepared cards with a chocolate for each of them. It was so funny to make them shut their eyes before receiving the gift! They were very anxious and they couldn´t wait to open their eyes. While keeping their eyes closed some even hypothesized that the class teacher and I were going to carry out a massacre! After opening their eyes they were so pleased to see a little gift on their tables! They were thankful, as well and some even told me that they were about to cry.

When I asked them to give me feedback in a sheet of paper, they wrote the most rewarding things one could ever read. It was great to discover that even the laziest ones had enjoyed all my lessons and that they have learned. In fact, one of the boys told me that he would never forget me because it was with me that he passed the first English test in his whole life. I guess that this is one of the most precious prize for a teacher, isn´t it?