their eagerness to learn inspires me

After a two week break from teaching (one week was a public holiday, the other I had to send my car for crash repairs), I was back to see the kids today.

It always feels a bit of a drag on the days leading up to Saturday, especially on Thursdays and Fridays when I feel like I really want to have the weekend to myself. But every time when I step into the class, I'm so happy to be there. I love these kids tremendously. Both age groups are so unique in their response that they continuously pique my interest and affection towards them.

With the new books that the younger kids (age 10-13) received last week, we did some reading. I read one sentence, and they repeated like parrots. It was really fun. There were words they struggled to pronounce, and when I tried to explain the meaning of some words they were so responsive. Every time they feel that they have a slight idea of what I am explaining, before I could finish, they would all be eagerly telling me what they know about what I have to say. There was this once when they got too excited and it was getting too noisy. I call for attention then asked them 'Who wants to be the teacher?' In the same tone of excitement, they pointed to me and said 'you! you!', so I asked 'So, why is it that all of you are talking so much? Can I do the talking for now?', and they solemnly said 'okay' (I thought it was so adorable), and I got a miraculous 2 minutes of complete attention.

Part of our reading (with the younger ones) included a tongue twister, and boy are so eager to have their turn at reading it to see if they'd get caught with the words.

The older kids (age 14-17) where also very responsive, but the girls being so shy, it was difficult to get them involved in class. I'm gradually encouraging them to do so.

I am so inspired by their hunger for knowledge. Like today during recess, one of the boys from the older group started on his homework and asked me to help him with it. I mean, I thought kids loved their recess and would procrastinate on homework, but not this child. And while not all of them are that eager in learning, they are by far more keen on knowledge than most of the local kids I've met who thinks they already know so much. These kids here are so humble and eager to learn, such a teachable spirit, and absolutely not hard to love at all.