A mis estudiantes preciosas

Yesterday was the last day of my morning ESL class after a little over 9 months of teaching. One of my students is taking her citizenship test 2 days after I leave Philly for a bit, so I'm gonna work with her up until I leave, but otherwise, I'm pretty much done with my major duties at the Welcome Center. I will miss teaching with such frequency. And I'm so thankful for my students and how amazing they are.

To Areika: thank you for being patient with me as a new teacher, for teaching me about Honduras and how to dance like una hondureña, for your amazing pronunciation, and for that awesome meal at your parent's house.

To Amarily: thank you for your humor, opening up your home to me, being my friend, trusting me to translate medical stuff right, the constant food, and inviting me into your family's life and celebrations.

To Angela: thank you for the patience you have grown in me through your struggles in English, for your cheerfulness and bliss despite being elderly and nearly alone in this country, and for the immense joy and motivation you had when you finally understood something.

To Ana: thank you for showing up every day for citizenship and working your ass off, for trying to get prepped the best you could for your test, for the electric aquarium which intrigues all, and for accepting defeat graciously.

To Maria: thank you for your energy, your laughter, your patience and humor with Angela, my Valentine's day doll Eduvigis, and offering to take me to the gym with you.

To Edelma: thank you for your joy, showing up after working all night, for not being afraid to ask for help when you were confused, for utilizing any and all English you knew, and for the offer of a place to live this fall.

To Lucila: thank you for your diligence, kind heart, willing attitude, independent learning skills, patience in everything, and the papaya and pineapple during breaks.

To Minerva: thank you for your energy, your warm and bubbly personality, your encouragement, for the offer of a haircut, and for showing up a few times.

To Nury: thank you for your sweet demeanor, your excitement for citizenship, your offer of a vacation and hang out time in the Dominican Republic, and for that wheel of cheese. It was awesome!

To Aida: thank you for being an early bird, for letting me know when something was boring, for telling me about your family, and for being so teachable.

To Albeda: thank you for always participating, being so advanced and thus my "pet" ha ha, for your thoughtfulness and wanting to know me as more than "teacher Katie," and for the shirt I'm wearing right now.

Thank you all for making my "work" this year something so much more fun and fulfilling than I could have even imagined. Many times over this difficult year, a morning with you all was one of the only things that made me wake up some mornings. Especially on the days where you told me I could pull off latina fashion if I wanted. We'll see.

I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know you all and teach you all some English. Good lord, even though today was our last day of class, I was still trudging through the alphabet with one of you. Thank you for affirming comments like, "teacher EXCELLENT", "buen clase", "enseñanos todos días!", etc. Thanks for helping me practice my Spanish; in fact, I think I got pretty spoiled since I could translate words easily from English if you all didn't know them. I might have encouraged Spanish speaking more that way, but I was desperate. So desperate that I now have a hard time transitioning from Spanish to English when I speak w/ an English speaker. It would have been hard if one or some of you spoke Albanian or Polish or something.


(L-R: me, Angela, Hanh (another student), Areika)


Areika and me, kickin it with bachata music


Thursdays with Rosetta Stone. The man and the woman are dancing. A cat. A dog. An airplane.


My hard workers (L-R: Amarily, Nury, Aida, Lucila)


Last day, my faithful few (L-R: Amarily, Lucila, me, Nury, Albeda)

You are all great! Lesquiero mucho! Nos vemos!