I met with Pete, my tutee, again today. We got to talking about Florida and I started to draw a map of the state to show him where Gainesville and Jacksonville were in relation to Tallahassee. Before I knew it, I had a map of half the country sketched out because he kept asking me about cities that were further and further away. We talked for a while about a lot of various topics from Hurricane Katrina to Communism in Cuba.
I decided to just keep the flow of the conversation going, since it was going so smoothly, and wait to introduce the reading I had printed out for him. He began to tell me some news which he seemed very concerned about. Some other students in one of his classes were blatantly disrespecting the teacher and acting like they were too superior to learn the material being taught. Pete said if this ever happened in Taiwan, the student would get in big trouble and he wishes the flow of the class could be restored. Turns out, he told me this to warn me that I might have to deal with that as an English teacher some day.
After we talked some more about how he could go about handling the tough situation, I decided to change it up and show him the reading I printed. It was the online journals of one of the Rotary Youth Exchange students who is living in Taiwan right now. We ran out of time while he was reading it, but he seemed interested enough to keep at it. He asked to take it with him, so I'll see how he liked it next time and if he wants to keep practicing that way.
All in all, another great session. Stay tuned.
Excellent, Chris! I think its a great idea to bring back-up material in case you don't get a conversation going but I like how you just went with the flow!
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