two loves. (by Zach)

I love Spanish. I really do. I enjoy the fact that I can just pick up a book in a language other than English and start reading. I am happy I can communicate with someone who might not know how to even say, “Hi, how are ya?” That’s okay though, because I got the good ol’ Cómo estás down.

Learning is something I love as well. I love picking up new vocabulary words while reading those Spanish books and then realizing it when one is used in a Spanish conversation I’m having. Heck, I even delve into heavy philosophical and theological blogs and books for fun to search out the height and depth and width of all that can be known about God and us, which by the way still remains mysterious in many, many ways.

Teaching is something I’m getting used to… Well, of course I’ve done it before in the states. I’ve been in various American classrooms for more than 100 hours observing and teaching and planning. I’ve made connections with students and been to their activities and events. This seems different though. I’m here to stay (sort of). I’ll be with them for the longest time I’ve been with any class. I also stay at the school all day and get to see behind the scenes of planning and preparation as well as school politics and teacher-to-teacher relations. It’s all very interesting, confusing, and a little stressful at times. I’m slowing diving more and more into this behind the scenes world though. Pretty soon I’m sure I’ll be up to my ears in juggling curriculum, lesson plans, student behaviors, grades and assessments, principals and administrators, parents and sponsors, and classroom instruction and learning. All seems overwhelming at first for a guy who loves Spanish and enjoys learning.

I guess the trick is to have those two loves be the motivators. Sure it takes a bit of time to write out lessons and prepare materials. Sure maybe sometimes it seems like it would be easier to just bypass all the hoops that teachers need to jump through to plan trips or obtain special materials for their students. Of course nobody likes to correct misbehaving students who might be disrupting the learning process. I guess that’s what ALL of this is though, The Learning Process. In order to display my love for learning and for Spanish and in order to pass on those two loves to my students, one must endure the banality of the system and the behaviors, negative or otherwise, of the ones involved. In the end, it’s a beautiful thing when students enjoy learning and rejoice in the material they have learned. Just like God recreating the world, The Learning Process is going to be slow and painful at times, but the rewards will far outweigh the trials.

May I come to rejoice in all of it because all of it is language and all of it is learning.