a slew of students

I normally don't use my students' real names on my blog, partly to keep them from Googling themselves. In this case, however, I feel safe using the students' real names because the names have been integrated into the photos. Here's a gallery of some of my kids:


The above kid spent many years in an international school in Seoul. Along with his regular US curriculum, he's studying Chinese. I helped him mainly with SAT essay-writing.



This girl is one of the hardest-working people I've met. She started her own tutoring service (to compete with ours!), and she obviously has a head for business. She's on her way to becoming a doctor, and she treated me as if I were a rock star. The first time she ever sat across from me for her session, she was practically wriggling with excitement. I'd never before met anyone so visibly delighted to be my student.


The above dude started radically improving his SAT performance while at our center, but he always comes in looking as if he hasn't gotten enough sleep.



The above girl is Cambodian; she's got relatives living in France, and speaks with delight and nostalgia about a recent trip she had taken to Paris. She doesn't speak much Cambodian (Khmer), but she understands it very well. I've always thought she has a great radio voice. It's easy to imagine her DJ-ing.



This girl, above, is a recent addition to my roster of students. She's incredibly smart, but she's also rather arrogant. When I'm trying to teach her writing, she interjects with remarks like, "Oh, this is easy! In my school, we do this all the time!" or "Oh, I already know how to do that," or "My teacher taught me a different way to do that." She's a Chinese Hermione Granger, and just as insufferable. Still, she's not a bad kid. I heard from one of my supervisors that her dad is even more of a braggart.


I was delighted to make the acquaintance of the above Sikh student, who turned out to be both laid-back and very in tune with his own culture. We talked for a while about my own experiences among the Sikhs in Lynden, Washington, and he was very informative about certain aspects of Sikh religion and history.



Above, the student on the left was always quiet, earnest, and studious. The student on the right was constantly goofy, but he hated being called goofy. "I'm not goofy!" he'd grouse in a goofy voice. The kid on the right is the little brother of the kid who had so much trouble with algebra. Remember that?



The above student is on his way to George Mason University. He no longer goes to our center (graduating/graduated seniors really have no reason to attend), but he came back Thursday just to say goodbye to me. I repaid his loyalty by making him help me carry bookshelves from my car to the tutoring center.

I taught so many more students than are pictured above—probably well over a hundred. I'd like to think that they learned something from me; I can definitely say I learned much from them. I'll miss them all... even that horrible Iblis (who hasn't been here for the summer session, thank Cthulhu). It's amazing how many people you can meet in two-and-a-half years. Lots of fond memories.


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