In Slovenian primary schools (pupils aged 6-15) we have individualised programmes for learners with special needs. Pupils that need such additional teacher help attend individual English (or maths, Slovenian, chemistry, etc.) lessons where one teacher works intensively with them, one-to-one, instead of them being in their classroom for that particular lesson.
This year is my first year of teaching and I teach five individuals with difficulties. I'm starting to realise the huge potential and importance that this year is going to have on my teaching. Nine lessons per week I'm confronted with five completely different students, all classified as students with learning difficulties. I have two lessons per week to work with them, to get to know them better, to try to understand them, to find the best ways for them to learn the language.
And they are
so very different, worlds apart. They all have their very specific problems and they all have their special talents. I work hard to tailor my lessons for them, but at the same time I enjoy their variety, I learn so much from them and hope that they are learning (at least something) from me too.
Without this year's precious experience I would never be able to fully understand how very different can foreign-language-learner problems be. There's so much you need to have in mind when preparing a lesson for a heterogeeous group of learners. I hope I'll never forget that.