Stories from Rm. 001

I've been wanting to write for some time now, but every time I sat at my keyboard, I wasn't really moved to write anything. Today I got a great idea to share with you some random moments that have happened in my class that just make me smile.

Story #1 Johnny and the Glog

I have a student named, well, not Johnny, but let's call him that. He's a student who has a difficult time learning and receives a lot of support in school. Johnny has a very dry sense of humor, but when you listen carefully, you'll find the things that he says are absolutely hilarious. Last week, students had to present an online poster to which they had posted two videos. Johnny was the star of his groups two videos. When the videos were playing he high tailed it to the back of the room like it was nobody's business. He wanted nothing to do with being near the front of the room while the video was playing.

Another thing you need to know about Johnny is that he has a difficult time forming words, so he has a very distinct voice and speech pattern when he talks. He's also heard himself recorded a number of times. As soon as he started speaking in the video, his response was, "WHY DO I SOUND BRITISH? Why am I doing that accent? I do not have an accent. Seriously! I sound British, why?"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. That is his voice and he does sound a little British, but he wasn't doing an accent.

Story #2 Nemo Touched the Butt

There is a student in my afternoon class, who often cannot help but blurt out things at random. There are times when I am certain that he has no ability to keep comments to himself or use his internal monologue. Today, I was teaching students how to write concession statements in persuasive essays. In order to get students to remember how to do them, I told them to write a "but statement." I then made sure to point out what kind of but I meant. As I turned toward the board to begin modeling what I wanted them to do, this student said, "Nemo touched the butt." I couldn't help but laugh. Little did he know that is one of my favorite parts of Finding Nemo.

Story #3 What is it? A full moon!

There was a day earlier this year where my students were all acting cuckoo for cocoa puffs. I had a feeling that a full moon was nearing and that's why they were just acting awful. By the time my last class rolled around and they were also really talkative, I couldn't take it anymore. They were the unlucky group that got the lecture from Ms. W. Somewhere in the midst of my stern lecture to my absolutely SILENT class about being respectful in class, I made the comment, "What is it? A full moon?"  In the midst now of the silence a student very quietly went, "Ahooooooo" like a wolf howling at the moon. Everyone had their eyes on the student and then me, questioning, what are you going to do to him??? I took one look at the student, and burst into laughter. He looked at me and smiled. Then the kids looked confused and started to laugh. I told them that even I couldn't keep a straight face through that and then continued teaching. The kids were great the rest of the hour. Evidently a little howl was all we needed.