Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The conversation, I think, was mostly OK, but

it made me nervous enough that I pulled aside all my female students on break to try and solicit their feelings about it, making it clear that if they were even the least bit uncomfortable, I'd make sure to channel future conversations about sex etc differently. They seemed very nonchalant, and even interested. I wish they'd comment in class more. I had two of the same female students in a smaller class, and they were both talkative.

In an ESOL class, you can go from talking about agro-business to sex very quickly. Sometimes it's difficult to predict where someone is going with a thought, because they are, after all, expressing their ideas in a language other than the one(s) they're used to using.

No comments: