786. Trying to find the right direction






One day teacher of English A said to teacher of English B, “This is a positive story in the end. A couple summers ago I was assisting in a camp of English, in the south of Spain. On this post I’ve changed some small pieces of info about the real people of the story.




Ok. One day I called the parents of one of my students for whatever reason. The boy had problems relating studying and revising his coursebooks to pass the remedial exams of September. His dad asked me how their son was going along. I told him he needed to study harder and learn how to study the books of his school subjects in English.




I also told him the kid used to forget his books in their common bunkbed room and so didn’t bring them to the classroom.




I had previously decided to change the methodology: ok, firstly it’s more important to help my boys to learn how to study. And some minutes of the class-period will be devoted to speaking in English, by means of games, prompts, etc.




His dad told me the boy wouldn’t bring his books to the classroom because we dedicated all the time to just talk in the class, both in English and in Spanish. ‘What!? All this is crazy!’ I thought after the phone conversation. It was very hot and humid. I got mad [upset]: the kid had told his parents he didn’t need the books in the class because we just spoke, while I was insisting in bringing the books to use them in the class, as revision and study.




In the end, next day I smiled: all right, all will be arranged nice by means of a serene conversation with the kid and his parents: both his parents and I were worried about the boy, and both were pulling toward the same direction - it wouldn’t be any useful to start a quarrell with his parents: we simply had to say things clear, to find what the kid needed then.” / Photo from: bullcreekblog blogspot com. canoeing spring creek canyon

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