I'm Troy Croom.
My first experience with tutoring came while I was working at Moss Lighting on Mission as a general laborer around 1981. I'd started Cal and dropped out to play in a band called Flexopumps. There were a couple SF City College students from China who were also laborers like myself; they were struggling with their English compositions. I was surprised at how deeply appreciative they were and how good it made me feel to help these guys. Working with them was one of the things that motivated me to return to and finish my BA in English.
A few years later, having graduated at Cal and having moved to LA, I discovered I could become a K-12 teacher with NO TRAINING; I would begin night courses in teaching instruction and work in South Central LA as an ESL instructor on an "emergency" credential for two years. Then I would go on to teach adults ESL. While I found I loved leading large groups, one-on-one instruction and motivation was always my favorite.
Wow! That's a touching story about how you came to interested in teaching. I think it's so important to remember that we all bring such different backgrounds to this class and that we can all learn from each other. Your experience helping the laborers would have been valuable to me last summer when I was teaching laborers in San Raphael :)
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