Five Things Making Me Happy

It's been a crappy week. Not enough sleep, misbehaving students (a third grader called my co-teacher a bitch today), canceled plans, computer troubles at school, computer troubles at home and just general melancholy. In an attempt to cheep up, five things that made me happy this week:

1. My 5th graders are doing really well! On Monday we studied countable nouns vs. uncountable nouns in the guise of Do you want some ________? versus Do you want a ________? and they did *so* well. By the end of class, I had a decent number of students who could not only chose the correct modifier, but also explain to me IN ENGLISH why it was the correct choice. One pizza - singular object - Do you want a pizza?; slice of pizza - part of a whole - Do you want some pizza?; two pizzas - plural - Do you want some pizzas? Hey Teacher, I'm hungry. Give me some pizza! I'm so proud of them!


2. The third graders are studying Lesson 11 - It's Cold. They're learning about the weather (It's snowing, It's cold, It's raining, etc.) and weather appropriate clothes (Put on your coat, put on your gloves, put on your sweater, etc.). I was reviewing clothing with 3-2 class and showed them a picture of a pair of blue jeans.
   
   "It's cold," I prompted. "Put..."
   
   One boy, completely innocently, blurted out, "Put on your panties!"


3. My goofball 3rd & 4th graders. Both grades played a game called Pass the Ball this week. The students passed a plush ball and dice around the classroom while a song played. When the song stopped, I showed the class a picture and they the students holding the ball and the dice had to answer a question. The 4th graders are studying a unit about shopping and I showed them a picture of an object and a price. The student holding the dice said I want a ________. and the student holding the ball said It's ________ won. I think I had as much fun watching the game as the students had playing it. I especially liked when a group of students would get so flustered trying to get rid of the ball or dice that they would created a möbius loop and the dice would become stuck circulate the same three or four students while the rest of the class howled with laughter.
   
   


4. The girls in the broadcasting club have been coming by my classroom to practice during lunch and after school and after practice, they like stay and talk with me. In my six month round-up I lamented the lack of students comfortable enough with English to go beyond the set phrases they learn in class and actually try to communicate. At the beginning of the month, the girls would barely speak English beyond their reports and now they won't stop talking. They'll talk about anything, from their favorite TV dramas to the 6th grade gossip to their thoughts on private academies (fuck hogwons!) (I was torn between chastising them for swearing in English and complimenting their excellent pronunciation of the 'f'). Yesterday, we talked about North Korea. (Kim Jong Il is bad man and North Korea people are very hungry. South Korea give North Korea people rice and cows, but not now. North Korea people are sad. And poor.) On Wednesday, there's no class after lunch and the girls stayed for an hour after practice. When I pointed out they could, you know, go home any time now, they said they wanted to stay and talk. And then they demanded to see pictures of my family.


5. I was mobbed by 3-3 class on my way to lunch today. It's hard to feel sad when you have five tiny girls clinging to you demanding hugs.