Substitute Teacher

The dorm English class teacher was in Laos renewing her visa, and the substitute teacher was no where to be found, so being the only native English speaker around, I was elected to teach class...10 minutes after it was supposed to begin.  So much for prep time.  Luckily I've had enough experience to wing it.

Up to my room I ran to grab Banana Grams, a game made up of letter tiles.  The 9 students worked in groups of three to make words in English from the pile of letters I gave them.  Then each student had to share a sentence using one of the words their group made.  It was fun, killed time, and gave me an idea of the students' English level.

After a few rounds of "Make English Words in Groups," I asked the students what they wanted to review.  "Transitive Verbs" W said timidly.  Transitive verbs...What's a transitive verb?  I wondered.  Trying not to look like I've never studied English before in my life, I asked for an example.  Who's teaching who English?

"Sing, sang, sung."  One of the girls responded in a rote, sing-songy voice.
"Okay, so you want to review verbs in the past, present, and future."  Using the white board, we studied went, go, will go; had, have, will have; danced, dance, will dance; etc. From there, T asked the question that made me realize why English is so challenging, "When do you use have and when do you use has?"  We talked about which subjects have must be used with and which subjects has must be used with.  Hopefully I didn't leave them more confused than when they arrived.

An hour and a half after I was given the surprise teacher label, we had all learned a little more English, laughed at silly sentences, been challenged with new vocabulary, and gotten to know each other better.  As the students said goodbye, I silently prayed for them.  Most of the students I've met who know Christ now, were first introduced to Him through relationships built out of coming to an English class.  There's something about meeting that felt need in a loving, accepting, Christ-like way, that draws students to want to know more.