Thursday, October 4, 2012

2 (Stories from Class) + 1 (Random One)

Elaine is a sixth grader that I previously mentioned in the post, A Few Stories from Class.  She is rather intelligent, and since this story was posted, she has leveled up into a more advanced class taught by my coworker, Kezia.  I have since found out that Elaine was born in America, and lived there during her early childhood.  Kezia pointed out that Elaine has sort of a refined demeanor that most of the other students don't have, and that could be attributed to her travels.

When Kezia began teaching Elaine, I told her about how I call her Olivia, and how annoyed she gets.  So later on, Kezia told me about an instance in class where she warned, "Elaine, if you don't answer this question correctly, I will start calling you Olivia..."

She responded emphatically in a Korean accent, "I am not OLIVIA!!  CHRIS TEACHER TELL YOU BAD THING!!  CHRIS TEACHER TELL YOU BAD THING!!"

And sure enough, upon seeing her in the hall after that class, I greeted her as I always do, "Hey Olivia-- I mean Elaine." 

"Teacher, YOU TELL KEJJIA TEACHER BAD THING!!!"

"Sorry, Olivia-- I mean Elaine."

"I am not OLIVIA!!"

Joss is a second grader in one of my lower level classes.  There's no way to describe him except to say that he's a character.  Joss has a sly smile, and sometimes he can be difficult to contain, but nevertheless, he is a pleasant student to teach.  Kezia previously taught his class, and recently, teaching duties for it were turned over to me.

We give bimonthly speaking tests, and for the general speaking portion, we normally ask the lower levels questions such as, "What is your favorite...?"

And an answer that would receive full credit, without prompting, would be, "My favorite ... is ..."

Kezia warned me that if you give Joss the question, "What is your favorite animal?"  It would be guaranteed that he would answer it with, "My favorite animal is snake!"

When it came time for tests, I randomly chose general speaking questions for students, and it just so happened that Joss drew "favorite animal."

When it was his turn, I briefly greeted him, "Hey Joss, how are you?"

He looked at me, flashed his sly smile, and confidently stated in a Korean accent, "I'm fine, thank you!"

I set my timer, as students have thirty seconds to answer the general speaking portion, and I asked him, "Joss, what is your favorite animal?"

His eyes looked up and to the right as he gave a sly grin.  Then he paused.  Fifteen seconds went by without him saying anything.

I prompted him, "Joss, my favorite animal is a tiger."  Students are docked a point when prompting is required.

His eyes lit up, and he flashed his sly smile.  He confidently responded in a Korean accent, "My favorite animal is snake!!!"

I immediately laughed.  

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