Some first impressions of teaching

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
On Teaching:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

So, I have finally found my calling. I've wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a kid, but actually practicing this dream has made it all the more real to me. I can't even tell you how exciting is to watch someone understand a concept that you've just taught them...yesterday, I had a moment that just crystallized this feeling so perfectly. I was tutoring one girl on how to use quotations in an in-text citation, and she was so confused about how it worked and when to use it. Then, I explained it to her, and I could see her eyes light up when she finally got it. I asked her to write me an example, and she got it perfectly. She then smiled up at me, whereas before that she was so meek and quiet...I am getting so many experiences like this everyday. It is fun to have my own office hours, to have meetings with students, to have papers to grade...I have a section of eleven girls (actually, ten students, but one girl just wanted to come anyway), who scored very low on the their exit exam, and I get to teach them all by myself for two hours a week. It's quite a feeling to be sitting in front of a classroom, having all these faces looking up at me! I had my second class today (it meets on Sundays and Tuesdays), and I'll describe what we did:
-first, we opened with a game so that I could learn their names (they are so foreign and difficult to remember! But, I'm getting to know the girls individually, which helps), wherein they said their name and one thing they like, which starts with the same letter. For example, Tharanitha likes toffee, Mathu likes monkeys, and Shohely likes shoes. Then, after each one, the next girl has to recite what everyone else said in addition to her own name and preference.
-then, in order to practice speaking some more, each student shared what they are looking forward to doing over the break (the next few days are elections in Chittagong, and everything shuts down). This activity allows them to practice speaking, pronunciation, and future tense, and gave me the opportunity to correct their pronunciation.
-The next activity related to the writing prompt I gave them last class, on their favorite memory. They are learning how to construct paragraphs, with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and then a conclusion. In order to ascertain what level their abilities were currently, I asked them to write about their favorite memory. When I read the essays, though, it was really strange because a lot of them wrote about what memory actually is, and I realized that they confused the word "meaning" (as in definition), with "meaningful." They also didn't understand the difference between favorite and most influential, so I got some really traumatic but incredible essays about things that they've experienced. I'm going to describe that in more detail after I tell you what else we accomplished in class today.
-after that explanation, we discussed the structure of a paragraph, and how that can be extrapolated to the process of writing a longer paper. They all need to learn how to write a research paper by the end of the term, so it's helpful to go through the process with them. In some other classes, I've given presentations on research techniques, like how to use databases, what to search for, how to phrase things, etc. We also talked about concepts like synthesis, broad knowledge base, paragraphing and understanding the 'gist' of an argument, benefits of getting multiple viewpoints and opinions, subjective vs objective (using the example of their exit exam, and how crucial it is to focus on English as a means of communication, rather than teaching to a test).
-Then, I used the issue of diversity as an example of how to structure paragraph (diversity is positive...why...how...support, give examples from AUW)
-Throughout, I can't help myself from teaching them lots of new words, and so we set up a worksheet to keep track of them (word, definition, synonyms, use it in a sentence).
-And lastly, I assigned them another writing prompt. I hate word limits myself, so I just asked them to write as much as they deem necessary to express their points. They can pick one of two topics: either about places that they most want to travel to and why, or about their future aspirations (it can be a small thing like learning how to do a certain dance, or as big as wanting to start their own NGO). I'm so excited to read them; it's a little selfish, but I am assigning prompts that conform to my own interests, and allow me to get to know them as people while I am teaching them grammar and structure and such...

Here's a transcription of one of the essays I got, by a student named Abee.
"One of the unforgetable bad memorable day was my brother's murder in my life. He was muder in 1st of January which is New year day. He was a medical student of Sri Lanka's one of the famous university. He came to our home cause of vacation. He left our home on January 1st 2007 with his friends to enjoy his day. He went to beach. Unfortunately Sri Lankan government has some bad embarassion about Sri Lankan tamils. He was tamil boy. Sri Lankan government asked him to prove himself was a medical student. As you know that medical university encourage the students to get freedom against government. So everytimes government has some bad thoughts about that university. They used to think all the students from that university are terrorists. So army arrested him and his other four friends and murdered. Even though we didn't get any maessage about him until next day. Next day a telephone call from hospital that means my brother's body was in hospital. Then what can we do? Just my father went to hospital and took his body and we arranged a funeral ceremony. This is my bad memorable day and unfortegable day in my life forever."
To give a little background, many of the Sri Lankan students have had really traumatic lives already, and are currently undergoing even more difficulties. There are two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. One group is Hindi and the other is Muslim, and the Tamils have been severely oppressed by the Sinhalese (the dominant group). There is an insurgent group called the Tamil Tigers (some people view them as terrorists, others as freedom fighters) who took militaristic actions to fight back against their oppression. The Sri Lankan government basically wiped out the entire organization, by killing the leaders and their families, beginning in 2007 and causing a civil war in the aftermath. Many civilians have also suffered, and these students have been through so much. Losing family members, and I have one student who really struggles with behavioral issues (she is very aggressive, and is at the point of expulsion from AUW for instigating physical altercations), and she actually had to watch her mother being murdered. It is very difficult to hear their stories, especially because they are so sweet and I see them gossiping with their friends, laughing, smiling, much as my friends and I do at home. Right now, the Tamil Sri Lankan girls are having a really difficult time, because India and Sri Lanka refuse to give them visas to go home for the summer break. So many of the teachers are up in arms about it, and every day there are more discussions about what to do and how to get these students home. The fear is that, even if they manage to get the girls back safely, they won't be able to get them back to Chittagong at the start of the school year...
Who would have thought a writing prompt would have elucidated issues like this? I feel like I am learning more from my students than I could ever possibly teach them...

In other updates...I am making such great friends here! Some of the other teachers are such incredible people, and I am so happy I'm connecting with them as deeply as I am already. Each of them has their own wealth of experience and expertise, and I'm learning as much from them as I am from the students. I'm learning to play the guitar from Tamanna (I can already play a Hindi love song), Fatema is teaching me to cook, design websites, and use photoshop. Jenine is teaching me yoga, meditation, and all about ashrams and various Eastern religions. I'm also getting some great advice about my future career options; John was in the Peace Corps in Madagascar, Fatema was accepted by the World Teach program at Harvard to come to Bangladesh, and Mary got a Fulbright to teach in in Taiwan. They are all giving me advice on how to apply for those things, and letting me practice in their classes. Mary already said that she will write me a recommendation for the Fulbright, and I'm especially enjoying the class we are team-teaching together. Lots of great stuff in my future! It is good to know that, although there are so many areas of the world that need teachers and NGO workers and volunteers, there are plenty of organizations and funding opportunities that help connect people like me with communities that need aid. One of my students describing education as a light that illuminates the darkness of poverty and oppression, and I can feel my future plans coalescing around the beacon of teaching, especially in locales of developing countries...