Istood in front of the class of middle-school ESL students. I was wearing a flower-print baby blue dress and a pair of pearl earrings, but my “perfect teacher” costume couldn’t stop the profuse sweating, the pins and needles shooting down my arms and the redness in my face.

I was gripping a dry-erase marker, but my numb fingers caused me to drop it on the floor. I worried I would drop it again if I attempted writing on the board.

“Hanh,” I asked our best speller, “could you write today’s question?”

I dictated: “What might you find under the back porch?”

When she finished writing, I read the question and students repeated, mirroring me as I acted out “under” by putting my hands under an empty student desk. I projected images of back porches from my students’ countries: Vietnam, Cabo Ver

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