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"You made me believe in myself!"

Some years ago, I was called in a hurry to substitute an absent teacher. It was an early evening, and the class should last for only 2 hours...

But its effects would stay with me forever.

I prepared some warm up activities, and just left to the language school.

It was a small class - only 5 students in it. One of them called my attention in a special way, by her notable interest in learning.

The class was flowing naturally... We had some drills, text reading, exercises and so on. When time was up to practice the listening skills, I played a CD, and asked some follow up questions.

They seemed to be a bit confused, and whispered to one another: "English is so difficult..."

I recognized that as a precious moment to make things clearer. Remembering the motto 'What we persist in doing becomes easier, as our capacity increases', I challenged them to listen carefully to that specific track.

I played it 4 more times, and at the last one some of them shouted: "Now we understand it clearly!" (Sweet to my ears...)

Another concluded: "I thought you had changed the track. It is so easy to follow!"

I can't describe how I felt. I just invited them to do the same with each track of the CD when they got home, and moved on. As they were all excited, each one promised to do it later.

The Best Was Yet To Come...

As soon as the class was over, they were ready to go. I was feeling that satisfaction of a job well done.

After gathering the material, I was leaving the classroom when I noticed something 'different' with the girl I mentioned before.

I saw her all alone in the hall. She was trembling. I called her by name. When she turned around, I was surprised: She was crying!

"What's happened?" I asked. "Something wrong that I said?"

She replied:

"Yes, it was something that you said. But nothing wrong with that. The words you spoke... For the first time someone made me believe that I can speak English!"

Wow! That was amazing! (She had been studying for a year, but didn't believe she could make it so far!)

I thanked her for her kind words and got downstairs, trying to hold the tears...

Whenever I feel down or tired of my job, inspiring stories like that remind me that teaching is really worthwhile...

And I just can't forget it.