A day in the life of English as a Second Language Teacher Part One

Somewhere - another state - several years ago

8:00 am
Raining


I was going to see a new student that morning. I went to Westside Elementary School to Mrs. Smith’s class. I knocked softly on the opened door and gave my apologies for the interruption. I asked to see Jose. Mrs. Smith looked at Jose, looked at me, looked at Jose and said, “Jose, your mother is here.” Jose jumped out of his chair, ran to me and said, “Mama,’ I smiled at Jose and said, “Mijo.” Then we walked out into the hall.

“For never seeing each other before we improvise very well,” I told him in Spanish.
I don’t think he understood improvise, but he squeezed my hand and said, “I didn’t want you to be embarrassed.”