I have to start out this post by saying I'm not that great of a teacher. I greatly disliked teaching ESL last semester, and don't see myself ever standing in front of a class, pointing at a board, and making students repeat after me. Yet somehow I love working at Corazon Contento. Yes, there's teaching/tutoring, yes I have to literally wrack my brain to think of creative ways for the kids to learn this material, but there's also so much more.

     Monday morning, I worked with Josseling on math. Counting, addition, etc.. she didn't seem to get any of it. She had one worksheet in particular where she was supposed to count dots and match them with the correct number. I'm not sure how many times she started to count and just got lost, but after a half hour or so she started to shut down and make lots of motions with her hands. At first I couldn't tell what she was signing but as I watched her get more and more upset I finally understood. She was saying, "I can't remember anything. My brain is messed up. I can't hear, I can't talk, I can't learn. I'm stupid!"

     As soon as I realized what she was saying, I felt tears pricking at the back of my eyes. I started to sign that she was wrong but she turned away and put her head down on the table. So I got out of my chair and walked around to her other side, and crouched down so that I could look her in the eyes. I prayed that God would help her understand (and help me balance all three languages - thinking in English, speaking in Spanish, and signing!) and signed as forcefully as I knew how, "Who told you that you were stupid? Don't listen to them; you are NOT stupid! I know that you can learn. You are beautiful and you are smart and you CAN learn."

     She just closed her eyes. Honestly I felt a little disappointed and thought that maybe she didn't even understand. I went back to my chair and started repeating 1-2-3-4-5 with Anita who was to my other side. But in a few minutes, I heard Josseling move so I sneaked a peek over my shoulder. She was finishing the worksheet! She handed it to me with all the answers correct. I drew a big smiley face at the top, and you should have seen her face light up! She gave me a huge hug then ran over to proudly show the paper to the main teacher Karen.

     Then in the next class session we started to work on the alphabet, and she stayed focused the whole time and was so excited each time she remembered the signs. She knows the majority of the alphabet now, though she occasionally gets G mixed up with Q. I am so proud of her! :)

     It's moments like this that I can see God working through me. Let's be honest, I can't sign that great. I can't always get across my ideas clearly, especially with kids. And I am definitely not that great of a teacher! But God wanted one of His precious daughters to know that she is valuable, and He let me be the one to tell her. I can't ask for more than that.

 

     Thank you so much for your prayers - I know they are making a direct impact on what we are doing here in Granada!