Tortilla soup: Its sweet, spicy broth and crunchy tortilla chips always have a good flavor. It’s missing something though, that it could be a lot better and it hits me – I need limes! As soon as the lime’s juice hits the broth and I mix them together, the taste becomes, as it should be. Limes make everything taste better – beer, soup, meat, chicken, potatoes (in all forms – fries, chips), peanuts . . .
As my teaching experience continues to improve, on multiple occasions now I have had good classes and good days. While this is uplifting, it’s not good enough – it’s tortilla soup without the lime.
At Wilmette Junior High I feel alive when I’m teaching, full of energy and at the top of my game. Here, at best, I have felt in control and in command. Here, it’s almost impossible to get the students back on track when I do try to have fun, make my students laugh, get them involved and engage them beyond copying information or looking it up in a dictionary. Today, it all clicked. I didn’t even realize I had been missing “the fun” until after school, when I was going to meet Andi and was excited to tell her about how great my day was.
Class was so enjoyable for me today because my students saw me in a new light, that I want to take the time to find out about them and that we can joke around. I referred to the small U.S. map that’s posted on the wall and pointed out where their family members live; almost all have a relative in the States. On my way back to the front of the room I spotted one student’s backpack sprawled in the middle of the aisle. Rather than just ask him to move it to the side, I used my superb physical comedy skills and acted as if I tripped over it. It seems like it’s taken a while to get to this point, but it could never have been accomplished without discipline in place first. Now that the basics are taken care of, the fun can begin.
