Goodbye class photo: Y9-D1307E

I've recently finished one of my favorite teenager classes of all time, if not the favorite. From day one, this energized group of students has been so eager, enthusiastic and receptive to both me as a teacher as well as to learning. I could not ask for a more ideal teenager class. All students were great learners, listeners, and all actively participated in the lessons. What I remember most is the great classroom culture we had; always joking around with each other as a group, with the teacher, having great fun, as well as really getting into classroom activities. My favorite part became the pair discussion parts at the beginning of each class: I would make students answer a question of the day in pairs and encourage them to engross themselves in a full-on discussion with their partners. During this conversing session, I would walk around and monitor the conversations; the system was that I would select two or three students whom I felt could use a bit more energy or development in their interactions to share their answer with the whole class at the end of the session. This prompted literally ALL students to do particularly well during this session, actively discussing the topic at hand with their partner with utmost vehemence, so as to avoid being chosen. As the course went on, students became more and more adept at conversing with their peers, such that I became so impressed and proud of them. Of course, it was also very humbling to see the impact you could have as a teacher on your students' improvements.

Among the students I will always remember is Thanh, nicknamed "Lemon" by the class, for a reason from their past classes I have failed to understand; nevertheless, "Lemon" stuck to us as his name, and "Lemon" became a character referred to for many of our classroom activities including dictations and group games. "Lemon" was always outspoken, but loveable and cheerful. His friend Phuc was also an endearing boy, always suggesting silly ideas. Hung was a mature gentleman, always surprising me with his knowledge in English, as well as his quirkiness when I wouldn't expect it. Nga was a sweet and hyper young girl, always ready to put a boy in his spot for teasing her, and always breaking the "No-Vietnamese" rule in the process. Linh sat in the back of the class but her big smile always stood out to me, as well as her elaborate and bright answers.


The highlight of this class was definitely the sense of comradery we had as a class, and I especially loved dialoguing with them all as a group. I actually delighted at our conversations, which always went above and beyond mere language class topics, into the realms of their culture and lives. We fed off of one another and it is our storytelling together that has resulted in such great memories I have of them.


Here are some pictures of our final day together, including our pizza party in which the food only arrived in the last 10 minutes of class, but it's alright, being the crazy teens that they are, we scarfed down all the food in due time.

Finally, here is a small video of their pair-conversation sessions taken in one of the last several weeks before the end of the course. I was just so impressed with their dialoguing that I had to capture it on video!