For a while I've wanted to write about all of my students, and now I'm finally getting around to it. Here is the first installment.
Being a teacher has been one of most rewarding and
challenging surprises of my time here in the Dominican Republic. I had no idea
I would be teaching until about a week before I was to start, but I’m very glad that
I have had the chance to do so. The reason the experience has been so rewarding
is because of the children I get to teach and spend time with. They say that
teachers aren’t supposed to have favorite students, but I’m not a real teacher
so I think it’s ok that Wileyni is my favorite. She just turned seven last
month (I'm pretty sure), which makes her the youngest of my students, but she is by far the
smartest. She can read and write very well, which is an accomplishment in
itself in this part of the country, especially for a seven year old. I’ll teach the kids a
few English words that we’ll go over a few times in class on Tuesday, and no
one else, not even Olga Louisa (a 23 year old Dominican woman who helps me in
class) remembers the words on Thursday, but Wileyni will. She’s so smart that often times
I’ll forget she’s only seven years old because I feel like I’m hanging out with
an adult, then she’ll act like a seven year old and it’ll catch me off guard.
It’s crazy. She’s also hilarious and makes me laugh all the time. Her and
another girl, Jenni, will attack me from either side and poke me in the side
and tickle me and on days when I’m exceptionally tired it’ll zap all the
strength right out of me and I’ll be helpless to do anything except laugh and
plead for them to stop. I asked her the other day if she wants to go to
University, and she told me yes and that she’s going to be a doctor, and I
believe it. I wish you could all meet her and get a hug from her because she is
really a special kid, and my life is better having had the privilege of
spending time with her.
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