Day 8: Getting through.

Write about one of your biggest accomplishments in your teaching that no one knows about (or may not care)

     This is the hardest prompt we've had so far. Just like I don't dwell on my failures I tend not to ponder on my accomplishments. I am a one day at a time person and my days are made up of hits and misses.
    To single out one accomplishment I find extremely difficult, but if I must, I guess it would be the fact that I have made a lot of students actually like French, even some that were previously unsuccessful and reluctant. I see this as my greatest accomplishment because it is easy to work with eager students but to inspire those who never saw the point of learning any new language is hard work. 
     It is impossible for students to learn if they don't want to come to your classes, so I feel it's my duty to create a learning environment that is welcoming and has something to offer to all who want to learn. I try to make them love French, France, the culture, the challenge of learning, the feeling of success they get when they master something after practicing long and hard, the joy of communicating, the opening of their minds... 
     And when it works, there is nothing like it. Both for them and for me. I got a message via Facebook not long ago, in which one of my former students, now a journalist, thanked me for having made it possible for her to read French literature in the original. No, she wasn't a great student when she came to me, but I got through to her through literature and she became a different learner. It was literature for her, but for others it could be movies, songs or conversation, or even French cuisine. I will try all of it until I manage to reach them. That is my biggest accomplishment.