Silence

I had a breakthrough today. I talk too much.

Of course, today is a Saturday and so there was no school. No, but I've started tutoring on the weekends as crazy as that sounds.

We were sitting together and working on writing. Writing is one of the hardest aspects of literacy for an ELL student to master and his mother is determined to help him improve before they move back to China. I set him off with a writing prompt that I pretty much forced down his throat because he couldn't think of anything to write about. In a stroke of genius, I decided to use what I have learned in my writing methods course and have him brainstorm a list of topics.

The thing was, I just couldn't let the poor boy think. If he wasn't writing something and just staring off into space I would start asking incessant questions that must have drove him crazy. Fortunately for me, I realized that he wasn't day dreaming like I thought. Thinking takes time and teachers have to be patient to let it foster. We have to stop loving the sound of our voices and start hearing the sound of silence.