That sinking feeling that your student is illiterate

Last year, I was not a good teacher.

I was way too absorbed in my own problems and trying to figure out my own life that I completely forgot about my role in helping my students solve their problems and figure out their lives.

This year, I’m trying to be better teacher.

I’m trying to notice when a particular student has just stopped coming to class even though all his school fees have already been paid. I’m trying to realize when my students ask to sit closer to board that maybe, they (like I was when I was in elementary school) are trying to work through a vision problem. I’m trying to put together that when a student never volunteers to read the board, always is the last to finish taking notes and hands in a quiz full of words that are neither French nor English, that maybe there’s a larger problem with which I need to deal.