This evening I met with my pink student for the third time. Three weeks ago he saw The Morning Routine for the first time, and struggled over new words and phrases. After a week off, he was here last week and had a bit of review, then learned a few new questions and phrases. He worked at saying all the pieces, with me indicating the prompts in the hint bar as needed. He seemed unsure of himself and it was a bit stilted, but for his second time it wasn’t bad.
Today was his second time to attend a real class (the first meeting was his trial lesson), and he was taken by surprise that we reviewed last week’s One Point, right from the very start. At the same time, his eyes lit up knowing he’d learned the phrase last week, even if he needed help reproducing it today. I could almost see his mind working, telling him that he would have to remember these after all. In fact, he seemed rather happy even as he struggled with it. Today he took much more seriously his role as scribe for himself.
We were both pleased, however, at how well he did with The Morning Routine. After one quick run through of me asking him the questions, he was able to say the whole thing by himself, without me indicating the prompts, without error, and almost without any hesitancy. I reminded him that three weeks ago he couldn’t do that ~ he grinned from ear to ear! Then I introduced stretching, and he was once again on shaky ground but I sensed that he already feels a level of trust that he’s going to get this, too.
It was so gratifying for me to see this student’s progress after only these couple weeks. As I learn my way around owning my English school, (really OWNING it, and not just because I paid the franchise fee), witnessing this phenomenon for the first time is delightful. I can honestly say that in the nearly seven years I’d taught at eikaiwa’s before, I never once had this sense of success with a student; not even with long-term students. I am blown away!
~ sue
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