From my Classroom

One thing I love about small children is their ongoing narratives about life. It is even more hilarious in Chinese. A perfect illustration of this: one day I was waiting with my students at the bathroom and one of my kids starts excitedly pointing to her shoes and chatting to me in Chinese. I nodded and pointed and said, "Oh, you got new shoes!" A Chinese teacher looked at me and said, "wow, that's exactly what she said! Do you speak Chinese?" "No," I said, "I speak child." Anyone who has or has worked with kids knows what I mean and knows that this is true.

Here, from my classroom, are some favorite moments.

*This happens multiple times per day:

"Teacher, here is a booger from my nose. Seeeee?!"

*I have one student who drives a race car in the back of the classroom. He also flies airplanes and plays musical chairs by himself. Needless to say, he doesn't speak much English.

*One of my favorite students has SO MUCH energy that we have to have a 5 minute jumping session when the rest of the class is in the bathroom. That sort of brings the energy down to manageable levels. Sort of. He's super smart, though, and actually understands a fair bit of what I say, so as long as he's not endangering himself or others he has a bit of freedom to move. The kid has ants in his pants. The other day he was disturbing everyone so I told him to sit down {I make sure my kids learn those words right away!}. He looks at me, shakes his head frantically and says "Bu yao, sit down!" Bu yao is Chinese for "I don't want." It was a seriously cute moment.

*I have a new class that just started a few weeks ago. We were playing a game called "Who stole the Monkey?" to help the kids say "my name is ______." Basically, I put a stuffed monkey in the middle of the room and walked outside the classroom. My co-teacher then helped someone "steal the monkey." I came back inside and asked, "who stole the monkey?" That person would stand up and say "my name is _______." One learner got SO excited that when it was his turn he stood up and shouted "I stole Bob*!" To set an example, I said, "My name...." Usually that kicks them back on track, but he was still excited and said "My name is stole monkey Bob!" Adorable.

*While waiting outside for my students to finish at the bathrooms, one of my chattier learners started spritzing water on her face {she hadn't dried her hands} and said, "teacher look! It's just like its raining!"

Any good stories from your classroom or house?

*To protect my students' privacy, I changed his name.