I still remember this coffee. It was just after my first day back to the teaching ring. That's a bad way to talk about teaching. But I have no good metaphors for it. I had been away from classrooms for over 5 years. So I can't help myself but throw a bit of humor into the mix.
Since my last experience was so bad, I didn't have any expectations for the beginning of this new job. I knew I was hired to teaching composition. It is something I can do without too much trouble. Writing in English has been studied to a more effective manner than in Spanish. There's a clear path to follow. You get the steps. You can write. You can write that way then you can improvise. It might even get you to do something like blogging. That's my case. Good writing is a really nice skill to have. You can use it for many things.
Anyways, getting to the classroom that day was a fast thing. The students came in little by little. It is a class at 8 o'clock on Saturdays. I get it. It is hard to get out of bed during weekends. It is worse for me. My actual job is on that day. I work on my things the rest of the week. I can't complain. The level of the students is on par with the things they have to learn. So the first class was a success.
I met up with @octocel for a coffee after that day. Also, I had someone to tell all about the class. How it went. Who was missing. The activities. All the gossip. That last part is usually zero, but sometimes interesting things happen during a class. Inside the bakery, we met with her aunt and cousin. We sat with them and the coffee and brunch was on her. We had some of the salt pastries that are common in Venezuela. I had a mini-lunch, which is bread stuffed with ham and cheese. This bread is baked. It gives it a puffy texture. It is what I think you could call a hot pocket. She had a different kind of pastry with flaky dough and the same filling. They were both really good. That bakery tends to go for quality over quantity with their products.
Her aunt also threw a Milkyway in the brunch. She has this tendency of given out candy. It isn't the first time we have met her by chance and she hands a bar of candy. Not complaining. It had been years since I had a Milkyway. So I saved it for later. Then kept talking about the day at class. It is interesting to get back to that kind of activity. At a moment in my life, I thought teaching wasn't my thing. I guess proving myself wrong is also part of my things to do this year.
And for a moment I could look at myself being a grown-up having a chat with other people about work while drinking black coffee. Very similar to what people do in Dinners. Or at least that's what I think some people do at those places.
You can look at my students doing some work in a photo. I made them write from the beginning to get an idea of how good or bad their sense of organizing ideas was. It was a nice way to get to know their styles and what they can actually do. It was a bit interesting. Most of them did a really good job. And I don't mean to brag, but they better do. Most of their teachers were my teachers at college.
Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13
Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.
Editing 🎬: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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