kids say the darndest things!

This post is a collection of various stories about and pictures of my students. I find myself saying often that they make me crazy, but I love them and they can always manage to make me smile!

This is a picture of me with the intensive speaking class that I taught over the winter break. These kids were so sweet and we had so much fun together!! My boys were just a little too cool for this picture, but I promise they loved my class ;)

The following are a couple of anecdotes from my teaching that I have posted on Facebook, but I'm sharing them again here because not everyone who reads my blog sees my Facebook posts.

In one of my classes, I was teaching on how to give instructions. We were learning the ordinal numbers ("first", "second", "third") and how to provide details when giving instructions. I modeled for them how to give instructions for making ramen by writing on the board, "First, fill a pot with water. Second, boil the water. Third, add the noodles..." and so on. Then I asked them to help me make a list of things that they are able to do so that they could choose one from the list and write their own instructions with a partner. On the board, we had a list going that included how to make cookies, how to make kimchi, how to travel from school to your home, how to send a text message, and so on. One student (the same one who insists that I call him "father" because his name is Kevin, which also happens to be my dad's name) stood up and asked, "Can I write about how to make a baby?" I absolutely DIED laughing. I told him that there is a time and a place to talk about that 'step-by-step process', but my English class was not the place to do it ;)

Just this evening, one of my students had a bit of a tantrum and threw a book at another student and pencils at two others. His Korean teacher came and took him from class to calm him down and talk to him, and when he came back to class he had written this apology letter to me.

A week or so ago, one student in my class was being teased by the students at his table. After I talked with the students who were teasing him and had them apologize, this student was still obviously really hurt and upset. I took him out of class to calm him down and talk with him. After we talked about how he was feeling and after he stopped crying, I asked if he wanted a hug. He said, "It's okay, Teacher". So I said, "Okay, so you don't need a hug? Let's head back to class then." And then he looked at me with hopeful, anticipating eyes and said "No, I said 'It's okay, Teacher'". I then understood that he was saying that it was okay if I hugged him, and he really did need that hug. Moments like that make all of the stressful times worthwhile.
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Finally, I want to share about a really good discussion that I had with some of my third and fourth graders a few weeks ago. I was teaching a unit from the textbook on Rosa Parks. I showed this video to give a visual reenactment of the bus scenario, and we completed a gap-fill worksheet with the lyrics for listening practice.

For the purpose of helping them understand what was happening in the video, I explained to them briefly what the words "colored" and "white" meant. Some of the key vocabulary words from the unit were "fair", "unfair", and "racism". The students shouted "unfair!" when I told them about how restaurants, bathrooms, and waiting rooms were segregated in America at that time. One student asked, "Is it fair in America now?" My heart sank. How do you explain redlining, body shaming, the school-to-prison pipeline, and so on to third and fourth graders whose first language is not English? I just told them that while segregation is technically over in America, it is still not completely fair in America now. Here are a couple of other questions they asked that just amazed and stumped me: 

"If a white person goes out in the sun and gets sunburned, do they have to go to the 'colored' waiting room?"

"Where would Korean people have to go?" 

"There are a boys' and girls' bathrooms...is that racism?" 

And one kid hit the nail right on the head..."Teacher, you're lucky because you are a white person." This kid somehow was able to identify the concept of privilege more easily than some adults can. I was truly struck by how perceptive he was. 

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I'll leave you with this...I just captured this gem today. I really don't think he has any idea what his hat means: