20 minutes / 二十分鐘

今天早上走路去搭捷運時，想到某堂在坎貝爾的課上我和露說：我現在所學的將來可以用在工作上。這學期選了兩本我自己很喜歡的少年小說給學生讀，當初還有想替故事畫插畫的雄心壯志，卻一直未有動作。今早剛好有些蠢蠢欲動，第一堂課要上勞達爾的瑪娣達，於是在捷運上就畫起草稿來了。

On my way to the MRT station this morning, it occurred to me that I had said to Lou in Camberwell that what I was learning then could be applied to my work. This semester I have chosen two of my favorite teenage novels for my students. I even had had the ambition to illustrate them back in summer, but I  never took any action. This morning I felt something stirring in me, and since we were reading Roald Dahl's Matilda during the first period, I seized the time during the metro ride to draw the drafts. 

我把每堂五十分鐘的上課時間定義爲一起生活的光陰，而我總是不甘心就這麼嘮叨過去，我比學生還受不了一成不變的講課，所以如果我可以在當下做些改變，氣氛會很不同。

I define every period of 50 minutes as our time of living together. I am never the type that is satisfied with my own monologue. In fact, I, compared with my students, have very little tolerance for monotonous lecture. I know that if I can come up with something new every day, the atmosphere will feel fresh and lively. 

學生開始分組討論之後，我就開始把這個星期讀到的情節畫在黑板上，之前在dpi雜誌上讀到某些插畫家用粉筆作畫，其實不容易，不過我只有二十分鐘，沒空想那麼多。畫完之後，孩子們也討論完畢，他們很開心地告訴我畫的是哪一部份的故事，喬萱還說，Hortensia太瘦了。

After the girls started their group discussion, I got down to work, trying to draw the main plots of the week onto the blackboard. A few weeks ago I read in dpi Magazine that some illustrators use chalk as their medium, but to be honest, it's not easy to draw with chalk. However, I had no more than 20 minutes, so it was also important to draw fast. After I was done, the girls had finished their discussion. They told me cheerfully about the parts of the story the images correspond to. Joe even said my Hortensia is too skinny. 

下課時大家衝到講台前拍照，我的課結束之後，喬萱上來擦黑板，過了那ㄧ堂課，彷彿什麼都沒有發生過，倒是我一整天頭頂上頂著顆大太陽，而也許當場的十五個孩子二十年後什麼也不記得了，卻依稀有個畫面在心裡⋯

During the break, most girls thronged to take photos with the image on the blackboard. After my two-hour lesson drew to an end, Joe came up to erase it away as if nothing had happened. I did feel the huge bright sun above my head for a whole day. And maybe the fifteen kids present won't remember a thing we talked about today in twenty years, but there might be a blurry picture in their mind when they look back...