On my last day at the Unemployment Centre, my students kept saying as they left “See you on Monday, teacher.” Despite my telling them that I could not return as I was about to start my Practicum, they were not ready to accept it. To be honest, neither was I. In such a short time I had learned so much more than I thought possible. From communicating, marking and assessing ELLs I have so many tools to take with me in the future.
I look back and my heart is heavy. This is not because of the sleepless nights, nights ‘off’ spent running around town or scouring the internet to find the best resources for my lessons. It is heavy because I want to rewind time and go back. I do not feel like I was given enough time with any of my students. This experience brought me back to my roots in teaching. I started teaching ELLs in Italy and going back to that, I now realize that is where my heart is, when I always thought it was stuck in the Arts.
The biggest lesson I learnt was how resilient ELLs are. They come from another part of the world and start over from scratch and they conquer it. I do not know if I could do that myself.