Lost and Found

I recently attended an International School Recruitment fair in the hope of teaching abroad come 2011 fall. Submitting my resume to schools in Shanghai, Beirut, and Bahrain (kindly do not ask me where it is), left my knees wobbling and my head spinning from the thought of relocating to those prospective countries. In short, I felt completely lost.

Turns out that my students have the similar reaction to essay writing. I had just given them the prompt to their essay which was to prove that one real world problem was serious and to offer a solution. To prevent my students from wandering around aimlessly in their essay, I had them "map out" their writing.

If I told my students to map out their essay, they would look at me blankly, blinking like a startled mouse. So I first had them navigate their way to the principal's office and then used the same framework to navigate their essays-

Destination: From Ms. Won’s classroom to the principal’s office.	Destination: To prove that the use of Ugandan child soldiers is a serious problem, but that there is a solution.
Specific directions: 1. Make a right out of the classroom. 2. Make a left at the main hallway. 3. Go straight until you reach the library. 4. Make a left at the library. 5. Enter the main office. 6. Find the principal’s office door to your left.	Specific directions: 1. The child soldiers are being abused. 2. Even for those who escape still suffer from negative effects. 3. The use of children as soldiers is spreading to other countries. 4. One possible way to help is to go to Uganda myself for a summer through a teacher exchange program.

Starting them off literally then bridging it to the more abstract thought of mapping out the "destination" of their essay worked surprisingly well. After reading their papers, I was able to assist those who seemed lost with their writing through one-on-one conferences.

And it's small successes like these, the unsung glories of being a teacher, that makes me feel found again.