Balancing Act

Tonight's class was amazing and evidence of how important it is to stay open with your students and open to change.

The seven year old I teach is extremely bright and very talented. From the first class I could tell that she has an affinity for drawing and tonight that interest really showed. I've been utilizing ESL-Kids (a great TEFL resource that has useful and convenient hand outs) to create flashcards and worksheets. However, lately the printer I use hasn't been working so tonight I was just going to have my student make her own flashcards. I had only planned for it to be a short activity, but it ended up taking most of the class and we actually never touched the "flashcards" at all. Instead, I had her draw on a white board all of the actions we were covering (sitting, hugging, drawing, etc.) and she really took an interest in it.

At first, she only drew pictures similar to the ones I had shown her, or similar to the ones I had drawn. However, it didn't take her long to really get into it and after four words she was already drawing me teaching, drawing her sister reading, and drawing herself running. It was really amazing and the pictures she drew were, in my opinion, pretty detailed for a seven year old. I think the part I enjoyed the most was being able to see things through her eyes (like the picture of me teaching!!!).

Likewise, during the process I learned more about her than I've managed to find out after talking with her for two weeks. For instance, for the picture of her running she drew herself and then filled in all of the elements of a race. Through questioning her, I found out more about the race. She told me the picture was of her as a baby and I was able to find out that was six years old at the time and that she was the only one in her family who ran.

All in all, I'd say that to be able to interact with her and understand her through something as simple as drawing was a very unexpected joy. Actually, to watch her learn and build her confidence day after day has been just plain fun!!