Jazz hands, please

It occurred to me recently that I don’t always take the time to really appreciate some of the moments in the classroom that make my job great.  I tend to take most things in life in stride, which sometimes means I don’t fully process the amusing moments that make class interesting.  I have a very ill-defined notion to rectify that. 

For a start, I’d like to share the fact that I got almost all of my standard 8 pupils to begrudgingly participate in a jazz hands competition at 8:15am this morning.  I know they thought it was completely stupid, but they did it and they enjoyed it in spite of themselves.  And I’m ok with that.  It’s totally fine with me that half of their enjoyment came from chuckling at me dashing across the front of the classroom signaling each section.  Sometimes you just need that to get going in the morning. 

I’d also like to mention that I had to detain standard 7 for 20 minutes after class because they insisted on speaking Kiswahili during English.  I decided to use the opportunity to teach them some things they might like to say to each other during class, using their English.  We learned things like “Can I borrow a pencil, please?”  and “Can you move over, please?” and “Can you stop touching me, please?”  The boys did a great job figuring out the pattern and making it their own, which led to some fun questions like, “Can I love you, please?” and “Can I sleep with you, please?”;  to both of which I suggested thinking twice before making either request of a girl. 

Today’s anecdotes have been brought to you by 5 very itchy mosquito bites.  Pop by again to see what else standards 7 and 8 have been up to!