Listen while I tell you a story...
When I was a teacher at Zoni, the only time my students were engaged was when I was telling them stories (about life in South Dakota, adventures weekend nannying the twins, and all the times I locked myself out of my apartment).
The second I would start talking about present perfect progressive verb tenses or idioms related to education, their eyes would gloss over again, but for those few minutes when I would digress into a story about how I once stole a library book, I had them. For 6 months I may have been completely ineffective in drilling proper uses of modals into their international brains, but they laughed at my jokes (most of the time), listened to my stories, and this kept me going.
Now that I am a nanny, the only time the kids are listening to me is when I'm telling them stories (about three aliens on the planet of Manhattania who run out of electric lemonade and go on a interplanetary search, ending on a South Dakota dairy farm).
I'm constantly calling their names (or hybrids of all their names combined when I get frustrated), and it's a rarity when I get a response back. But when it's bedtime and I pull out a book off the shelf or start telling them about the time my sister stepped on a snake nest in my grandpa's pasture, I have them. They might ignore me 90% of the time and verbally abuse me the other 9%, but for a few minutes each day, they shut up, snuggle into me, and listen to my stories, and this keeps me going.
In both of these jobs, the only thing that has kept me sane (and employed) has been my ability to tell a damn good story. (My skill of using gestures and animated voices have really improved thanks to both jobs.) I hope that I'll be able to continue doing this forever, in one way or another, and maybe someday to a much larger audience.
The second I would start talking about present perfect progressive verb tenses or idioms related to education, their eyes would gloss over again, but for those few minutes when I would digress into a story about how I once stole a library book, I had them. For 6 months I may have been completely ineffective in drilling proper uses of modals into their international brains, but they laughed at my jokes (most of the time), listened to my stories, and this kept me going.
Now that I am a nanny, the only time the kids are listening to me is when I'm telling them stories (about three aliens on the planet of Manhattania who run out of electric lemonade and go on a interplanetary search, ending on a South Dakota dairy farm).
I'm constantly calling their names (or hybrids of all their names combined when I get frustrated), and it's a rarity when I get a response back. But when it's bedtime and I pull out a book off the shelf or start telling them about the time my sister stepped on a snake nest in my grandpa's pasture, I have them. They might ignore me 90% of the time and verbally abuse me the other 9%, but for a few minutes each day, they shut up, snuggle into me, and listen to my stories, and this keeps me going.
In both of these jobs, the only thing that has kept me sane (and employed) has been my ability to tell a damn good story. (My skill of using gestures and animated voices have really improved thanks to both jobs.) I hope that I'll be able to continue doing this forever, in one way or another, and maybe someday to a much larger audience.
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