Teaching Tales

1. I’m a proponent of getting students to do skywriting to practise the spelling of difficult words. Today, someone asked me to use sign language since she knows how to sign the alphabet. Instantly, I took up on her need for connection and proceeded to teach the class how to finger-spell “my heart sank”. I felt good about leveraging my sign language background.
2. “Do you know that today is World Water Day?” I told my son, fully expecting to impress him with my esoteric knowledge. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and we were spending quality time together. Instead of being awed by my fun fact, he quipped without missing a beat, “And World Rhino Day is on 22nd September.” I certainly didn’t know that. I guess that the joke was on me because my jaw dropped and my eyes widened in surprise.
3. “A senior teacher told me once that our love must be unconditional,” I beamed, sincerely explaining to the class why I had made a particular difficult decision. I was not so sure whether many of them had heard me, though. The air was charged with nervous energy as the fatigue of the day’s learning imprinted itself on everyone’s faces. Nonetheless, I continued my pep talk, recognising that I was sowing seeds of wisdom. One day, some of them might recall this moment and experience an epiphany.
4. “Ohhhh, ONE PIECE!” exuberant children’s voices echoed throughout the classroom, tugging at my heartstrings. Newly dispatched to teach in Japan, I had bought a ONE PIECE carrier bag to break the ice between my new students and me. I took a deep breath and began my self-introduction, forcing a wide smile to conceal my nerves. Had they noticed my slightly trembling hands and quavering legs, I wondered.