New job title

TEACHER?!?!?

I haven't wanted to be a teacher since I was about 10 and used to force my siblings and friends to play school with me (I really just like to write on the chalkboard and mark their papers with a red pen). I did a 2 year stint as an after school teacher at an inner city school in Cincinnati for a while in college and if I wasn't sure before, I was definitely sure after, teaching is not for me!   Well, as I mentioned the other day, I'm giving this teaching thing a try again.  This time it's completely different though.  Instead of children that are spending time at school after hours mainly because their parent forces them to in order to ensure they receive a 3rd meal each day (that's another post for another day), the students I'm teaching now are adults with a desire to learn.  

So far I have had 3 students and after spending 30-45 minutes with me, each of them has decided to come back for more =)  I was pretty nervous before my 1st student as I had no real idea of what to expect.  It took a little while but I got the hang of it and we had a good time working out of the text I have and chatting.  I was much more confident and things went really well with my 2nd student a couple days later.  Both of those girls are younger (20&21) and I think they're going to be fun to work with.  I had my 3rd student for the 1st time yesterday and I thought I had blown it because I was expecting her to be at about the same level as the other 2 girls I had met but she is not.  She is an elementary school teacher and her students get an English lesson each day that she sits in on, so she hears the "Where is Joe?  He is in the kitchen" routine I had been using with the other 2 girls on a daily basis.  I almost panicked for a minute when I realized what had taking me 25 minutes with the other girls only took me about 10 with her, but we were able to spend the remaining time sharing stories about our travel experiences.  I'm going to have to be prepared with lots of conversation topics each time I meet with her, but we're the same age and I hope we won't run out of things to talk about.   It is going to take me some time to get used to correcting them when they say something incorrectly.  For the past 2 months I've just been so happy to be able to understand what Japanese people are saying to me that I let all the horrible grammar go.  I can't do that with my students!

I'm going to stick with these 3 ladies until after the new year to see how it goes.  If it's worth the money I'm making I am enjoying myself and I still have time to spend with Jason, then I may chose to pick up a few more students.  For now, it's just nice to be working again =)