Another Laughing Class

I have one class that has just a few students in it, and, as I mentioned to my boss the other day, they should be taken to a hospital to cheer up sick people. Why? Because they are perpetually happy. I take absolutely no credit for the situation; they are just wonderful kids.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Far from it.

These kids (2-3 grade) cheer me up and keep me guessing.

I started a long time ago (it seems now) teaching most of my young elementary students to write the date and the weather ("Today is Sunday, November 29th, 2009. It's cloudy and cold.") in their notebooks after I had written the sentences on the whiteboard (wb). This is useful in multiple ways: talking about days, months, weather, capitalization, punctuation, etc.

In a few classes, as is my practice, I began--once I had trained them to copy these two lines--to have individual students write the lines (to be copied by everyone) on the wb. I say, for example, "Ann, please write on the whiteboard 'Today is . . .' " and it's done, with a little help. They often compete to see who gets to write.

Back to the 'happy' kids.

I taught them to do this--to write the day and the weather on the board--but instead of one student writing it on the wb and the rest writing in their notebooks, they somehow got it in their heads that all of them should write it on the wb.

So, usually, even before I get into the classroom, they start writing on the wb. Writing and laughing.

Why are they laughing? They are friends. They like each other. And, they get silly with the English language.

Picture this: Three students writing the day/weather on the whiteboard: one student is writing letters as big as possible, another student is writing letters as small as possible, and the third student is writing the letters backwards. Or skipping every other letter. (ie, things I would find hard to do as a native speaker).

Again, formal education would speak up and say, "Sit down! Open your notebooks and write . . .". That's what I used to do not even a few years ago. Teacher must be in control.

These happy kids, these laughing kids, are having so much fun--and, in the process, learning so much more--that my previous pedagogy, my prior beliefs and practices, would be a shame.

I wish that all of my students/classes presented the same "problem".