This Week in Class
So, during one of the first year JHS English classes this week, we taught the students plurals. They had to stand up and tell either me or the main English teacher something that they had more than one of (two pens, three books, six dogs, etc). On my side of the room when a boy in the front seat raised his hand, the boy behind him tried to get him to tell me how many pairs of underwear he had (one of the words used for underwear in Japan is “pants,” which is of course naturally pluralized, and of course hilarious to a 12 year old). So I immediately told the second boy that when I got around to him, HE was going to have to use that as his answer. I went around and listened to a few other students and figured by the time I got back to this boy he’d have chickened out and changed his answer to something standard and safe. However, when I went back to him, with as straight a face as he could muster, he told me he had “10 pants.” Then he started cracking up, and so did I. 10 points to him for originality!
And this week’s elementary school English lesson was with 3rd and 4th grade students. The lesson theme was sports, because all the elementary schools in town had just had their school sports festival 2 Saturdays before. I opened each class by asking the students if they enjoyed the sports festival and what their favorite event was. In the 4th grade class I went to just before lunch, one of the boys raised his hand and said the name of one of the dance events in Japanese. I recognized the last bit of what he said, so I kind of knew what he was talking about, but I’ve taken to getting the students, especially in elementary school to use gestures to help explain what they are saying to me in Japanese (even if I understand them). So, I asked the student to show me a bit what the event was, thinking he’d do a few moves, I could say, “Oh! A dance!” and move on to the next student. Well, before you knew it, the student in charge of the CD player had the CD for the dance music in the player, and 2/3rds of the class were on their feet re-enacting the dance for me. It was SO funny and SO adorable, that even though it was going to eat up about 5 minutes out of the 45 minute class time, I let them perform almost the entire dance. Since the homeroom teacher seemed to be getting a kick out of it as well, there was no reason to stop them!
My kids crack me up sometimes. Actually, almost always!
And this week’s elementary school English lesson was with 3rd and 4th grade students. The lesson theme was sports, because all the elementary schools in town had just had their school sports festival 2 Saturdays before. I opened each class by asking the students if they enjoyed the sports festival and what their favorite event was. In the 4th grade class I went to just before lunch, one of the boys raised his hand and said the name of one of the dance events in Japanese. I recognized the last bit of what he said, so I kind of knew what he was talking about, but I’ve taken to getting the students, especially in elementary school to use gestures to help explain what they are saying to me in Japanese (even if I understand them). So, I asked the student to show me a bit what the event was, thinking he’d do a few moves, I could say, “Oh! A dance!” and move on to the next student. Well, before you knew it, the student in charge of the CD player had the CD for the dance music in the player, and 2/3rds of the class were on their feet re-enacting the dance for me. It was SO funny and SO adorable, that even though it was going to eat up about 5 minutes out of the 45 minute class time, I let them perform almost the entire dance. Since the homeroom teacher seemed to be getting a kick out of it as well, there was no reason to stop them!
My kids crack me up sometimes. Actually, almost always!
posted by Mandy | 8:51 PM
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