the other side of the spectrum

Being in front of the classroom instead of sitting in a classroom is a very different experience. I always wondered if the teacher watched the clock as scrupulously as I did as a student. I was always counting down the minutes until class was over, pondering how it was possible that the second hand seemed to stop for minutes at a time. I would do work for what felt like 15 minutes only to find out it had been 3.

Well, now I know. Yes, teachers do watch the clock counting down the time until class is over. But instead of being bored and wondering how class isnt over yet, I glance at my watch every few minutes, trying to calculate how it is that i am supposed to teach my students why you put "Do" in front of questions that use "have" and why "do" conjugates and not "have" (the main verb). (probably most of you weren´t even aware that you need do in have questions, and not in to be questions). Classes fly by now. The hour I teach for is only about 15 minutes long (and even shorter if you take into account the fact that its on Latin American time, which means students dont arrive until 10 after at the earliest). And then I go to my Spanish class. And I sit, and sit, and sit. And the hour never ends. Even when the class is actually fun!