As nature and my English students swing around toward spring, they both may reap some rewards for their patience. All during the winter months, seeds and animals have patiently passed the time, waiting for the return of warmth, and my students have been just as persevering as they’ve sat through day after day of sometimes sleepy English classes. Nature often seems to be dozing outside in the frozen months, and my teenage students surely slipped away on daydreams occasionally between November and March. Many of the lessons I’ve taught them are probably slumbering somewhere deep in their minds -- perhaps, like some seeds, never to waken again. However, now that sunshine and gentle temperatures are returning, countless seeds will be stirring and rousing up into sprouts, and perhaps some of my lessons, after months of slumber inside my students, will revive and bring the kids back to some kind of academic liveliness. Maybe my autumn lessons on organizing essays will suddenly sprout into respectable papers in April, and possibly my lectures back in September on leaving out unnecessary words will take root and result in some tight and tidy sentences in May. Who knows, maybe the classroom sleepiness I noticed all winter was just the kids' way of imitating nature. Like seeds, perhaps English lessons have to sleep before sprouting.
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