The Brazilian

I have a student from Brazil. He is very inquisitive, very dramatic, & usually very tired (ie, asks to sleep in class.)

Today, the "Do Now" was to write about what you did over the weekend & how you felt about it. As he was telling me about his brand new Wii & the Pokemon game he got, he said, "I have Pokemon. I love Pokemon. Pokemon is my life. (Long pause) Wellllll, next to my family."

Then I actually read his written response from his journal & I had to take a picture of it to share with y'all. :) Please note the last 3 lines. (The "translation" is below the picture.)

When I saw the Wii in my house, I cried, I died, and came back to life in 1 second.

Birthday Poster

I'm LOVE my 4th period class. You've heard me talk about them before, they are my "newcomer" students who are beginner English speakers. I love them because they are so thoughtful & they always laugh at things I say. :) Of course I love them, right?

Well, today YS (7th grader) asked me, "¿Cuando es su cumpleaños?" I politely told her it was March 17th, even though it had NOTHING to do with our assignment. Then she asked, "¿Cual es su favorite color?" I was very proud of her for using the English words that she knew. :) So I gladly told her it was teal, which is between green & blue.

I happen to have teal construction paper in my room, so she grabbed a piece of it & used some scissors to cut a strip off. I asked what she was doing & she replied, "Ahh, surpriiiise," with a huge smile.

After 2 minutes, she held up the birthday poster I had made with all of my students birthdays on it & revealed how cute she really is... (notice the awkwardly placed teal one at the bottom)

Proficiency level: High Intermediate?

EC is one of my students who I also taught last year. He is an 8th grader this year & I must proudly say that he has progressed a lot in the time I've been working with him. He has jumped from a very low intermediate to a high intermediate proficiency level in English.

Just to put it in perspective, last semester he was reading slowly because he was not confident in his own verbal language & he did not have clear handwriting. Often times, he would "check out" in class because he didn't completely understand what was going on.

Well, yesterday was awesome for one reason & one reason only. I like to randomly teach my students fun idioms or phrases people say, but they might not understand. It's always fun when they get it & even better when they use it in every day life.

EC was trying to copy what I had written on the board onto his paper while sitting at his table. I was standing infront of the board talking about the subject (possibly blocking his view of the board) when EC said, "You make a better door than a window, Ms. S." He smiled immediately, more proud of himself for remembering that statement than anything else.

I couldn't help it, I screamed & said, "Yea!! That was so good. I'm proud of you for remembering that phrase. Good job. OK, I'll move now."

Are you calling me fat?

Just for fun one day, I pulled out a children's picture book that is written in Spanish. I began reading it infront of the class, then I asked 2 of my Spanish speakers to continue reading it to us.

Periodically, as they read certain words I didn't recognize, I would ask, "What does that mean?"

At one point in the story, the student began reading a list of food items, to which I replied, "Oh, I know what those mean..." (& I began to say what they were in English.)

LK (South African) said rather quickly, "Of course you know THOSE words."

When I smiled & looked at him, he immediately looked up & yelled, "NO! I didn't mean...I mean, I didn't say...I just meant that..." He literally couldn't finish a thought because he was so flustered by his own comment. :)

After seeing his embarrassment, I had to simply asked, "LK, are you calling me fat?" haha

The girls laughed & LK sunk into his chair & nervously giggled through that whole situation. I love that kids have no filter. I can relate.