Subbing for "Quinsig"

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of substitute teaching in Jackie Lynch's English as A Second Language Class Level 4 class at Quinsigamond Community College's Outreach Program. It was wonderful to have everything that I needed to teach with right there at my fingertips! I more than any other teacher that I know can appreciate what it really means to be adequately supplied with the tools necessary to teach. I walked away from a teaching position when I found conditions intolerable to maintain my professional standards for teaching. That was not the case last night. The opposite was true. I had a stack of mimeographed papers about 4 inches high...all of them relevant to the level of where the class was.
The best part was the way Jackie uses MUSIC to teach ENGLISH! It is hard to explain in a blog, but Jackie put on a workshop which I attended a few years ago in which she showed how she used popular songs (such as the Alphabet Song) to teach English. I used the cassette and her ideas in my teaching after that workshop and last night had a chance to use them again. We had a great class, and it was a full house as I am sure it is every night when a teacher of the caliber of Jackie Lynch
is their teacher.
I also had the chance last night to meet Claudio DaSilva. Claudio is a new student in Level One. he is the husband of Patricia Pachecho DaSilva,Phd Biologist scientist in the Department of Immunology at the University of Massachusetts. Patricia is doing research on a grant from the government of Brazil and I had the pleasure of tutoring Patricia in English. They have a lovely 3 year old daughter named Rebecca. I am happy that Claudio was able to find a spot in a class.