The Frustrated Student

Today I realized how easy it is to become a frustrated student. I have a class, Portuguese, where the professor speaks only in Portuguese. For a foreign language class this is a very good practice; normally I am very engaged if not excited by the challenge of understanding the professor.

Today; however, I was not engaged. Instead, I was frustrated by not understanding what was going on around me. I did not understand what was expected of me. I heard something about a test, something else about an essay, and several random dates that I did not fully understand.

Someone might ask, "well, why didn't you ask the professor for clarification?"

A valid question, but to a frustrated student not. A frustrated student does not want to ask a teacher to repeat something they've already said two, three, or more, times, something the rest of the class understands, something he or she should understand.

A frustrated student will simply sit, like I did, frustrated and unknowing. When I realized this I realized several things about being a teacher.
1) I must watch out for frustrated students in order to help them.
2) I must make sure that I can organize and present information in such a way that it is clear and easily understandable to all students (especially if there is a language or culture barrier involved).
3) I must avoid expressing impatience with students.
4) I must never tell students, "I am only going to say this once..."
5) I must always remember this experience so that I might always remember the lesson learned.