ESL Stories

As promised, I'm going to begin to share quick stories and funny things that happen during class. I jot them down as they happen so I don't forget. I tend to think that I'm going to remember something, only to try to think of it later, and only remember that it was something funny.... So here are a few anecdotes from the last couple of weeks....

I'm going through the Christmas story one character or element at a time with First Grade (today we talked just about the angels and their involvement). The other day we were talking about sheep. So I asked: "What do sheep have to do with the Christmas story?" One girl answered something about dancing, to which another replied, "No! Sheep can't dance. They don't have hands."

During a rainy lunch/recess time, Preparatoria (Kindergarten) was eating in the class and playing a guessing/I-spy type of game, asking "What's red and a circle?" and answering "A ball." They mostly used pictures or objects that they could see around the class, which made it easy for me to guess because I just had to look where they were looking.... So at some point one of my class clowns looks directly at me and asks, "Who has a mouth and glasses?"

With Christmas coming up, we're doing a lot of practicing of Christmas songs and dances. One of the boys excitedly exclaims to me in class, "Miss! Ya entiendo que es Merry Christmas! Es la cumpleanos de la escuela!!" (I understand what is Merry Christmas! It's the birthday of the school!) He went on to explain his reasoning being that one of the songs contained the phrase "Happy Birthday." I'm not sure which song he's referring to, but I did manage to explain to him that it is the birthday of Jesus we celebrate.... not the school.

Sometimes kids and their language skills just make me laugh. I had one of my First graders come up and ask me all in Spanish: "Can I tell you something? But can I tell you in Spanish because I don't know how to say it in English?" I ignored the fact that she had just asked me all of that in Spanish and let her continue.... I didn't entirely follow her story, but it was something about Santa.

In both grades, we've been talking about bees. In First Grade, we read a story last week all about Honey Bees. I would ask at each page the jobs of the different types of bees that the story discusses. We get to the drones, the only male bees in the colony. In the book, it says "The drones help the queen." So I ask the girls, "What do the drones do?" Their answer? "The queen."

In Preparatoria, we're reading a story about flowers, so I took some time to explain nectar, pollen, and bees. Not sure if they got it, but they got some of it... So then I explained the difference between bees and wasps. I drew a bee with honey and a wasp with an arm showing a stinger and a sad face... I asked what bees make, and the answer was a resounding, "Honey." Then, as I worked on the drawing of the arm, I asked what wasps make. One girl hesitantly responded, "Sandwich?"

More to come soon!

Quitting Time

Sometimes, it's just time to quit, so that's what I'm doing... Not my job..... Facebook. I'm quitting Facebook.

Last night, I was still up at 10pm, and instead of either reading my Bible or just going straight to bed to get a "full" 7 hours of sleep at that point, I signed on to Facebook.... I used the excuse that I was chatting with someone to keep scrolling aimlessly through my feed, reading, liking, and commenting on things I didn't necessarily care about and could have done without knowing.

When I finally got off at 12:30, I had an epiphany, and finally admitted to myself that I was addicted to Facebook among other things. After doing some journaling, praying, and declaring myself free of these things, I decided to quit Facebook.... I felt the same sense of overwhelming relief and freedom that I've felt on several occasions when I made decisions to get out of unhealthy relationships.

So, today, I made my last post (a birthday greeting to my brother, although now that I think about it, THIS will be my last post, but this feels more like the shutting of the door), will soon be updating my cover picture to direct people here, and then it will be time to close that tab for the last time. I am asking my cousin to change the password so I can't get back in, but people can still get in contact with me if necessary.

The good news is that this will give me more time to pursue real relationships with people rather than searching for personal connections in a long list of posts. I'll also have more time to devote to the ministry I'm doing here and the work I do from home. It will provide me with more time to sleep and get into the Word.

While this one victory over this one addiction tastes sweet already, I know I still have a long way to go, but am grateful to know that God is still willing to work on me, and that He hasn't given up on me, and that He isn't finished with me yet! Defeating this one addiction will help me get the strength to continue breaking the others, one by one if necessary.

The other good news is that I will be updating my blog more often since I don't have a better way of keeping the "general public" informed of all my happenings. :) Please feel free to check out my Facebook page to get my contact information. If you don't know me and desperately need to get in contact with me for some reason.......... Leave a comment? That will work.

Back to ESL Business

So.... I gave up on this blog a long time ago because of the Google takeover of Blogger and I couldn't figure out how to get back into my account.... Then today I was trying to figure out Google Adsense and found that this site was still making (a bit of) money, so I tried signing in for the heck of it, and it worked! I'm not sure how, because I just clicked on the "sign in" button and it took me to my home page.... But I'm glad it did. This blog name is a LOT easier to remember. So, I will be writing in here from now on.... As often as that happens....

So many funny things happen throughout the day when teaching English to little kids, so I've started jotting them down in my iPod during class so I don't forget them. Here are the stories I have collected at the moment.... Enjoy!

I was with my Prepa (Kindergarten) kids, and their new favorite phrase is "I love you." It's usually adorable, unless they say it right after they've just done something they know they're not supposed to.... I was on my way out of the class when they surrounded me, saying "I love you," one at a time, and of course I told them I loved them back.... Then I turned to one of the girls who looked especially eager to tell me how much she loved me and she asks me, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

There's a song we sing in chapel called "One Way." It's a very upbeat song and the kids love it. The chorus goes like this: "One way, Jesus / You're the only one that I could live for / One way, Jesus / You're the only one that I could live for." The tune is very catchy. We are also doing "Let it Go" from Frozen for our Christmas show. So, I had just announced that we were going to practice (which gets them super excited, because who doesn't love dancing to Frozen?), and one of the girls starts singing to the tune of "One Way." "Frozen, Jesus...."

I was in First Grade, where my girls get stickers for using their English. For some reason, the phrase "Can I go...." sticks with them. So one of the girls asks me, "Can I go to the sticker?" This was quickly followed by another girl asking, "Can I go to the bathroom?" And a third looking at me thoughtfully before saying, "Beautiful."

As much as the chaos that often comes with teaching young kids drives me crazy, it's the little moments like these that reminds me why I love what I do so much.