Denisa’s Teaching Again

(Mega Super Points to you if you manage to link the pic for this post to the topic–without needing to Google it.)

If you’ve been following my Twitter or Facebook feeds, you might have noticed me mentioning that Denisa’s heading back into the teaching force. She has a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language, and when she got it, we figured it would come in handy pretty much anywhere we moved. We didn’t count on moving to a place like Western Maine, where the ESL population is just about zilch. (At least that’s how it feels sometimes).

But then earlier this year, the university reached out to her to see if she’d be interested in teaching a writing class to international students who are struggling with writing. Go figure–on a campus with only 2,000 students, there are students from Cambodia, Chad, Japan, Sweden–all sorts of places. (One of these times, I think it would be really interesting to hear the stories about how all of these different students ended up going to Western Maine for school. I think it would be fascinating, but I’m strange like that.)

It’s been five years or so since Denisa taught, and yesterday was her first day back. (Also DC’s first day of Pre-K). This means that yesterday, it was the first day all four family members were away from the house at work or school. TRC even noticed it, and wondered if our house would be lonely. (If I were a house, I’d be relieved, most likely.) DC was beyond excited for her Pre-K experience. It’s an all-day Pre-K, and she rides the bus in along with TRC. She looked as grown up as she no-doubt felt, and she loved talking all about her experience when she got home. (A second child gets even more excited for things, I think–because she’s seen what the first child has gotten to do, and has had time to look forward to it.)

But back to Denisa. Her day went very well, it sounds like. Teaching was a success, and she was still able to get the laundry done, make seven or eight buckets of dough, get around 20 loaves ready, and watch a movie with me. This is in addition to getting up to get DC’s hair done for school, make the kids lunches, finish lesson planning, and come with the rest of us to the school’s open house in the evening.

She’s going to be a busy woman this semester, and we’ve both known that for quite some time.

Hopefully not *too* busy. We’ll see how it all goes. In any case, I’m very proud of her and all she’s managing to get done, and I think teaching will be great for her. It’s something she always loved doing, and I felt bad when we moved here and she had to essentially give it up. No idea if this class will lead to more classes in the future, but it’s important to focus on–and enjoy–the present.

Go Denisa!