Spunky Girl

One class I teach has 7 students, 6 of whom are girls.  They are first grade beginners.  Last semester I taught them phonics (a,b,c's), and this semester they are on their first conversation textbook.  I like them, and they seem to like me as a teacher.

Some days they are quite entertaining.

For example, when I had them write on the whiteboard, I noticed that one of the girls--a terrific learner who is also quite spunky--had appropriated my textbook to check her spelling.  That's fine, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for some playfulness (especially as that is where a lot of language learning takes place).

I asked, "Chloe, is that MY book?"

She responded, "Yes, teacher."

I said, "Chloe, you are a book thief.  I'm calling the police!"  I mimed calling the police and them coming and putting her in handcuffs (I have done this often enough in other classes that I know how to ham it up pretty good).

Then I dashed off a drawing on the whiteboard of her in jail.

The kids all thought it was funny.

I thought that was the end of it, but a bit later, when I was checking their notebook writing, everyone started laughing.  I didn't know what was going on, focused as I was.  I looked up and saw 6 kids.  No Chloe.

I turned around, and there she was, behind me, drawing a picture of me on the whiteboard.  I had to laugh.

It looked like my picture, except she had drawn an arrow pointing to the figure and next to the arrow she wrote "Mr. Spencer".

But she wasn't done.

She drew three--3--hairs on the figure's head (I keep my hair cut short).  The class laughed all the harder.

Then she drew a ribbon on each of the three hairs.  The class roared.  I had to calm them down, though I had a hard time doing so as it was truly hilarious.

I love students like that!:)

In the same class, on a different day, I returned a test they had taken, and one girl, Seung-min, got a special sticker for getting 100 %.

She looked at me and asked, "Teacher, sticker, homework sticker?" while miming moving the sticker from her test paper to her homework sticker page.

(When they get 30 homework stickers they get a present, either a pencil or an eraser, and it's a big occasion, so every sticker counts.)

I replied, "No, Seung-min.  Sorry."

She asked again, and I responded the same way.

Then--completely uncharacteristic of her--she pretended to cry.  A very good pretending--she put her head down in her arms and everything.  She is thin, small, and cute, so if she really was crying it would break your heart.

Everyone thought that was quite funny, and I pretended to comfort her.

I like starting my teaching day with them.  Half the time I just sit back and let them try out their English and entertain me:)