The first time

Their faces star at me blankly. The twenty students of my summer school class have no idea what the Yovo gesticulating wildly and speaking in English has just asked them to do.

I’m stuck.

In my head, all my students understand. All of them leave class loving English, and I have inspired them to want to learn more.

There is a lot riding on this fill-in-the-blank verb conjugation exercise.

Unfortunately, my students are lost. And I’m lost to how to help them find the answer.

I desperately glance at my colleague.

This time, I realize I have to ask for help.

He walks to the front of the room and confidently breaks down the exercise on the chalkboard for the students.

“See,” he says. “It’s not hard,” as the students fill in the first question of the activity.