the subtle joys of teaching

I think sometimes we forget how people influenced us. I know I do. I take my love of reading and writing for granted, but if I look back far enough, I can trace these passions to some of my elementary school teachers. It's these adults who've become faint (although very fond) memories in my head who helped mold me into the person I am today. Just a week or so ago I rediscovered that power that I have as a teacher now. Our hagwon has a pretty extensive English library, with several books that are geared toward older kids (abridged versions of the classics). I was teaching a class of three 8-year-old boys when the subject of vampires popped up. We talked about them for a while, and I mentioned the book "Dracula" that we have in the library. Their eyes lit up, so I took them down the hallway and showed them all of the scary, cool books in the library that I thought they might like. They each ended up taking one of the classics home with them. They brought them back the very next class (after the weekend) and demanded to be shown more cool books. It got me so pumped that I could show them the joys of reading a really good story, and help them learn English at the same time. It's these little joys that are going to carry me through the next 2.5 months!