I can scarcely believe my last post was about snow days! The weather is now much more to my liking!

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about where I want to live my life. In the last two years, I have considered jobs literally all over the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe (sadly, there are no ESL jobs in Zim!  I checked...just to be sure!). I've been offered some jobs, I've been ignored for others, and yet I'm still here. I don't believe that there is just one perfect job out there for me. I think there are a number of jobs that would be a good fit for me, and where I could make a difference in my students' lives.

I look at things like benefits and salary when I consider a job posting. Of course I do! And there are incredible incentives in some parts of the world. But what always stops me from jumping in is the question of how well I will get to know my students. There isn't a definitive answer to that question. In some contexts, I know that teachers are fairly restricted from contact with their students outside of the subject of English.

Those around me on a regular basis know there are days when I say I want to quit teacher and become a ___________ (The answer to that blank changes regularly but have recently included coffeeshop barista, tour guide, massage therapist, and environmentalist). Quite frequently, I grumble about lesson planning. I bemoan the inconsistent attendance of an adult ESL program and I pull my hair out over the challenges of planning lessons for students from an impossible range of levels. And goodness knows, it takes all of my willpower to drag myself out of bed in a timely fashion in the morning.

But those feelings vanish when I'm in my classroom. (Except the sleepiness. Sometimes that persists through my first cup of coffee.)

Despite the fact I know I could make more money working elsewhere, it is humbling to teach these sweet people. Students have asked me to help them understand insurance plans, fill out job applications, write letters to their children's teachers, interpret notes from their children's school, talk to their doctors, listen to their voicemail messages, prepare for citizenship tests, decode their paystubs from work, determine if their electric bill is too high, if a car they want to buy is good or not....and the list goes on.

My students are adults. They are capable, intelligent people who are willing to work hard to change their lives and the lives of their families. I endeavor to respect that and foster as much independence as I can, encouraging them to practice their English by asking other people for help and not being afraid of linguistic mishaps. I always tell them, "I don't want to hear any of you say, 'I don't speak English.' You can tell some one, 'Please repeat. I am learning English' or 'I only speak a little English' or 'English is my SECOND language'. But all of you can speak at least some English, so don't say you can't!!" My classes always laugh at that but that is an important distinction.

But still, there are situations where they still need help. Patient confidentiality doesn't really exist in my classroom. I try, but there have been so many times when my students need me to talk to a nurse about a message or to understand a medicine label or to know how their health insurance works. We technically have a class rule that cell phones shouldn't be used during class time, but that's a joke! Normally, a phone rings and someone hands me the cell phone after answering, and I end up pausing class to confirm a doctor's appointment or to tell a telemarketer to stop calling. Is it a good practice for a teacher? Probably not, but for now, it's needed. My current batch of students have all been in the USA five months or less, with some joining class tomorrow who have only been in the USA since April 16. If I were in a different country, dealing with a new language, I would want someone else to answer my phone too!

Just today, one student asked to borrow my laptop to check something at our break. After a little while, I asked if she needed help, because she seemed frustrated. Her employer uses an online system to issue paystubs. Her HR department had her sign the paperwork agreeing to only using the online system and to no longer receiving a paper paystub. Her most recent paycheck was about $40.00 less than she expected and she wanted to know why. No one in HR had bothered to write the website she needed to go to in order to access her paystub. They had simply given her a paper with her username and password and a few other bits of information.

We worked at this together for about twenty minutes, which basically led to me googling for the company name and finally following enough links to get to the employee access page. For me, it was a matter of scanning for the words I knew I needed. For her, it meant hundreds of unfamiliar English words on webpage after webpage. We finally found the right part of the employee portal and looked at her deductions on her paycheck and figured out her question.

My heart skips a beat every time this happens. I've been handed social security cards, drivers licenses, green cards, passports, financial documents, passwords and usernames....all with the complete trust that I will be able to help. The majority of my students are older than me by at least one decade and have valuable life experiences. But in these instances, they know they need help. I try to teach about privacy and keeping personal information secure, but when the situation is now, they can't wait until they know enough English to handle these things on their own. Refugees and immigrants arriving in this country don't just need to learn English, they need to learn an incredible amount of cultural information and expectations. These demands outpace their language acquisition almost immediately and the result is incredible stress and anxiety.

And so, for now, each day at my job reminds me of the power of a teacher. I will always be able to grow and learn as far as methodology and techniques to teach English. But I know that there is a way to be much more than a good English teacher. It is evident in the little responses. Today, I brought in a big container of hard pretzels for our break. One Nepalese man danced a little jig of happiness as he smacked his lips, excited for a snack at break time! (He's our class clown.) Another woman came over to me, pretzel in hand, and gave me a thumbs up as she said, "Teacher. Good job! I like this one!" That made my day on so many levels. I frequently say, "Good job" as an encouragement and my students are picking up on that! We've been talking about different nonverbal gestures as well, such as thumbs up/down and high fives! I will probably still have days where I want to pull my hair out if I repeat a concept ONE MORE TIME and I worry about students not making gains on their assessments. It's worth it when I see the relief on someone's face when something important is explained in a way she can understand. The answer might not ever help that individual to do better on her next English test (but maybe it will). Those are the moments when I really feel like I'm making a difference.