28 students, 5 students, 1 student--no problem!

Today I seriously had a hard time waking up. Last night I set my alarm clock to 7:00 am. Surprisingly I managed to be half-awake at 6:59am and reset the clock to 8:00 am (which I then woke up at 7:59 am), yet it still wasn't enough for me but my conscience dragged me out of bed into the shower and out the door in 30 minutes. After taking the first few steps in today's below-30-degree-freezing-weather, I said to myself, "There better be more than one student today or..." I somehow didn't finish my thought and kept on walking to the bus stop.

You might be wondering what kind of class operates with only 1 student... Every other Friday or so, I teach English at a drop-in conversation class for adults at East Liberty. Well, the title of the class says it all--people drop in to study English and the number of people showing up for class really depends on many things. The harsh cold weather certainly affects the class' attendance. For the past 2 Fridays, it happened to be snowing and icy, and I had no more than 2 students in each class...
But, for some reason it doesn't bother me at all because I have full respect for those people who come with high motivation to improve their English and make friends. So this morning, I was very determined to see who showed up even after waiting for the slow bus for 35 minutes with frozen fingers and face...

In the bus, my brain was working hard trying to figure out what I would do in a class: Will it be another class of 1 student? Wait, what if there are 2-3 people? Hhmm, it's sunny today, so there might be more... What to do??? What to do??? Not only the attendance is unpredictable, but so is the students' English ability. So with the whole uncertainty of what lies behind the classroom door, I walked in with a big smile and saw FIVE people looking very eager to learn!!! Thank you, God... You're awesome and let's work the charm, I said as I mentally prepared myself to help these five students sitting in front of me.

Teaching a drop-in class is a new experience for me and it definitely puts me to the test. Due to the "unknown" elements of a class every week--number of students and skills--I am required to be very flexible and know how to asses the students' skills quickly then determine the appropriate activities  for them. That's where I get the adrenaline rush that I rarely get... So a classroom of many students, few students or a student, I look forward to having fun learning English with them because they're still students who are excited to learn, and for that I respect them...