Last Friday I mentioned to my 6th and 7th graders that I wouldn't be teaching, next year. I think everybody had known that, if they'd stopped to think about it, but we hadn't really ever talked about it. Well, word spread to younger siblings and cousins, and several of my third graders asked about it yesterday. I confirmed that yes, I was planning to go back to the US, next year. They couldn't quite understand why I would leave, which struck me as ironic since the question is usually why I ever came in the first place! :) So today one of my sweet third graders colored me a good-bye picture (As a side note, this is not unusual. I probably average 2 pictures a day from my second and third graders. They're very sweet. The content of this one, though, is what makes it stand out.). It will definitely make the memory box because of it's hilarity. In total seriousness, Caro wrote, "Teacher Alisa: Behold! I am sending you as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Chao, Teacher Alisa. Love, Caro." Whatever was going through that precious girl's head I will never know.Then 3 hours, later, I was with my 6th and 7th graders reviewing for our big exam. They were playing a game where one student sits facing the class, while another writes a vocabulary word or phrase on the white board above his head (where he can't see it, but the rest of the group can). His team, then, tries explaining the word or phrase (using English, of course) so that he can guess it. The phrase, at hand, was "for the rest of my life." They tried telling him it meant forever, to no avail. So they started describing a wedding ceremony, where the priest asks the bride and groom to commit their lives together 'til death do they part, at which point one of the smartest, funniest, most witty kids said, "It's a really long sentence!" When I first heard it, I thought he was describing marriage as enduring punishment, but then I realized he was just referring to the length of the phrase, itself! I just laughed and laughed and laughed (to myself, of course! : )
