She came into my class with a perfect American accent, long curly black locks and curious eyes. Her grammar could use a boost here and there, but she compensates with a huge love for English. As we speak, she is getting ready for the Shakespeare School Essay Competition her eyes glittering with hope thinking of the attractive prizes, the 2-week summer camp in the UK. After all, the sky is the limit when you reach for the stars.
Well, Andreea – who is in my Preparing for PET exam course – is the kind of child who has already got a pair of wings: she won an English speaking Public Speaking Competition and got in SECOND PLACE – which is amazing. Her tests are better and better and when we see results for our hard work, nobody can stop us. We are on our way to excellence. I know that from my own experience. Yes, it is hard in the beginning, like anything which is totally new, but we HAVE to keep at it.
Needless to say I applaud her for the courage it takes to speak in public. So when she shyly confessed she needed my help in brushing her speech a bit, I gladly did it. Her discourse was actually quite good – it will show up on our website, following this introduction – and I was happy she was brave enough to hold that speech. I had trouble doing that in my twenties, let alone when I was 12. Getting a second place for it was thus an amazing accomplishment and she deserves all the praise for it.
She works a lot and makes a lot of progress. Within the two months I’ve seen her in class she got from 12 mistakes to none, and to tell you the truth it is students like her that keep me going, as a teacher. We are all on a mission and I hope that mine will be at least partly accomplished, through my students. She has never come to class with her homework undone. Well, actually I am only partly right. She did. Once. And it was because her dad forgot to bring the book over to her grandma’s, where she was staying for a couple of days. She felt like crying because of it, so I could not tell her off. I just couldn’t, she was doing that already.
This is Andreea: brave, perseverant and attentive. She asks the right questions, when things are not clear, she makes sure all her attention is there with me and she is all ears in class. Her black coal-like eyes are stuck on me, whatever I say, just like drinking my words. They say students learn only if they really want to, I would say they learn if teachers encourage them enough… for me, Andreea is just one of the many children who fully deserve it.
