Kids Say the Funniest Things

I dearly love to laugh. And honestly, on the occasion I can't really take everything seriously. Even if a student has a wrong answer to a question they should know, the wrong answer can be hilarious. (I hope I won't get in trouble for saying that in relation to teaching, but sometimes one of my students will say something, and I will have to turn around and laugh silently and shortly while writing on the board, or smooth out the smile that quickly spreads across my face.)

Here is where it gets real. While laughter is good, I fully realize that laughing at someone can be very damaging. May I even say that we can all remember a time that someone laughed at us when we were trying our hardest and were very hurt by the laughter? However, laughing while learning is essential, and encouraging students to take ownership of their language and use it as much as possible is one of my goals. Encouraging laughter in a general sense can help create a safe environment where the student can be encouraged to learn from their mistakes, and even eventually, laugh with their adventures in language and content.

Here are some of the funniest moments so far:

--I showed a picture of a bowl of oatmeal. Me: "Can you tell me what this is?"  student-"A meal nobody likes!"

--We were working on synonyms, and a student wanted to know how to use the word afraid in a sentence. My quick example was "I'm so afraid of tigers". As a quick afterthought I said, "That's just an example you know. I'm not actually afraid of them". Immediately, the student emphatically exclaimed, "I AAAM!". Another student walking by quipped, "but we're supposed to be afraid of all dangerous animals!". I affirmed this to both students.

Silly Miss Rachel. I let my own ego get in the way of teaching. It is okay, and natural to have a fear of dangerous animals. Thank you for humbling me a little, 3rd graders.

--I showed a picture of an owl. Student response: "When him see a zombie, him fly away! *flaps arms and runs off...*" Not only has the consistent use of the pronoun"him" instead of "he" started to make me laugh, but the zombie reference was so irrelevant to anything we had learned.

--I pointed to a picture of a giraffe. "Can you tell me what animal this is?" Student response: "A MONGOOSE!". How did that word get in their vocabulary?

-- Kindergarten Student A: "ouch!" Kindergarten Student B's instant response: "What's happening girrrlfrraaaaaind??"

Coming from a 5 year old English Language Learner's mouth, this was hilarious.




Again, while many of these quotes are funny, especially in context, it is important for me to realize the real people I teach.The students are real people, not just robots who I have to teach. They too have their own lives, feelings, families, emotions, loves, and struggles. Listening to what they're saying when they're not giving me an answer to the hundreds of questions I ask per day can help give me insight into their personalities and lives.



I too, am a student. I too, am learning, and am learning to laugh at the mistakes I make while teaching. =)