Successes in teaching this week

This is the last week of the semester at the community college and the ELI, and while it's definitely the most stressful time of the semester for me, it definitely has its rewards:

1. One of my community college students (a middle-aged guy returning to college) who was writing F papers at the beginning of the semester got an A on his last essay. He told me that all his grades in all his classes have improved as a result of being in my writing class.

2. Another community college student won a scholarship that I recommended her for. She wrote to say thank you.

3. I was asked to interview for a full-time lecturer position at the ELI. I applied a few weeks ago and thought it was kind of a long shot, since I'm a young teacher, but now I have an interview on January 17.

4. For the final exam at the community college, I asked them to write an essay explaining what grade they think they deserve. A lot of them said in their essays that my class was their favorite. I'm not sure if they were sucking up or not, but it made me feel good :)

5. One of my ELI students baked me cookies for the last day of class. We all watched "The Princess Bride" together and they laughed at the right parts.

These are the reasons I love teaching. It is really hard work, but the rewards are awesome.

Also, I'm in it for the free samples of international food. In the last two years, I've gotten to try all sorts of things I would never have even seen before. Best: Colombian arepas. Worst: actually nothing; most of it's good. Weirdest: Arabian coffee - strange herbal aftertaste. It's not a great reason to get into teaching, but hey, it's an awesome perk.