With Students Past

I love teaching ESL, but even more, I love the relationships that arise through the whole process of teaching and learning with those kiddos. Last week I received a voice mail from two of my former students from this past year, Juliana and Lena: Mrs. Gongora! Where are you? We miss you! We want to see you...and hear about the baby! Call us, okay? So I did, and we arranged lunch plans for this week, Friday. We had so much fun, and it was so good to see those girls. We ate Chinese food, which shocked me, but that's what they wanted! and we went to Braum's for ice cream. They were so excited to see me and so grateful for me to pick them up and spend time with them. They were so sweet, they offered to help with the baby's room and, of course, they want to babysit!

I love hearing from the kids after they leave my classroom because I feel like I've truly made a difference. When I went into teaching, I asked God to make me a light for Him, to show the students His love through me. And I've prayed that prayer countless times. So when I hear from former students, I know God has answered my prayer over and over again. This year I got several visits from students, and unfortunately I was so busy with graduate school, I didn't have time to blog each visit, but looking back, here's who came to see me: Ching-Yi, Teh-Wei, Josh, Cesar T, Michael, Kirbin (that's all but one of my all boys class three years ago!), Felix, Maykol (from my first year! wow!), Manar, Brenda, lovely Nady from NYC, and beautiful Sara. I was even interviewed twice by former students (Teh-Wei and Felix) for their sophomore English classes as their most influential teacher! Thank you God for the blessings you've given me through teaching! I will truly miss it!