My Mother is My Life

I'm lucky enough to teach English as a Second Language to people from all parts of the world. I've met some amazing and courageous students from places like Tanzania, Eritrea, Russia, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, and other countries. Some are here as refugees searching for a haven (I know what that feels like!), and others are here simply as immigrants trying to find a better life (I'm feeling that also).

Last night I was teaching a class about the sounds of letters, how to spell words, and words that are opposites.

One student was exploring the letter M, so I asked her to come up with a word that starts with M. She chose the word mother. I asked her to create a sentence using the word mother and here's what she said:

My mother is my life.

"Beautiful!" I said, as I wrote the sentence on the board. I smiled and she smiled. We're both mothers so I know we both were thinking of our mothers and our children. I didn't want to erase her sentence off the board as we proceeded with the lesson. I did eventually erase the sentence, but it remains in my heart.

I was also teaching the class about opposite words, like absent and present, adore and despise. One pair of opposites that a few of them had a hard time grasping was often and seldom.

I asked the students to come up with sentences using both words. They could use the word often in sentences, but they had a hard time understanding the word seldom.

I came up with a sentence for them:

I seldom make time for fools.

They seemed to grasp it then.

I've got some awesome students. I'm sure they'll give me lots more material to share with you. Look for it.