I just got a gig with a local language school. I officially start next week, but I filled in for somone today. Most of these students are young international students from Europe or Asia, so teaching them English is both fun and challenging. When I was going over some activity in class, a young man wandering around peered into the classroom at the woman teaching across the hall from mine. I asked the students if any of them knew him, and one student told me he thought the wanderer this felt this way (making kissing gestures) for the teacher. I then took the opportunity to teach them an idiomatic expression: “to have a crush on.” Once I explained it was synonymous with infatuation, many of them got it.
When I taught English at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, my classroom had a view of the Washington Mutual/SBC tower in Downtown San Diego. One day, there was a truck, parked in front of the bank, decorated with homophobic Bible verses, anti-gay slogans, and homoerotic images with red circle slashes over them. I took a moment to point out the
truck and had a critical discussion on homophobia and my students’ points of view on the subject.
When teaching, distractions are bound to happen, but I always enjoy it when the opportunity to make them into teaching moments arises.
