JOURNAL: May 21, 2006

Last week the sun finally came out again, and I enjoyed the luxury of outdoor classes quite often. What good fortune it is to be able to sit outside in a bright and breezy garden and conduct English class with ten excellent, attentive students! Sometimes I can hardly believe my luck as I sit out in the golden sunshine and discuss great poems with the kids. Thousands of English teachers around the country would pay to take my place at this marvelous little school. What surprises me a little about the outdoor classes is how attentive the students are, even with birds doing their loudest songs, delivery trucks pulling up, small children laughing as they dash by, and enormous bumble bees circling around like helicopters. One of my colleagues mentioned just yesterday that he was impressed by the attentiveness of the students as he passed by a few times. I do remind them now and then about how important it is to ignore the distractions when we're outside, but nonetheless, I too am a little surprised by how alert they have been. Next week I hope to film segments of the outside classes, so I can capture some of the elegance of the scene. Watching intelligent, dedicated students engage in thoughtful discussions is a wonderful experience anywhere, but in a lovely spring garden it's especially inspiring. I hope to be able to look at the film a few times over the long summer just to remind myself of how enriching a teacher's life can be.