I love Tuesdays.
I used to despair over my earlier Tuesday class (earlier generally means both younger and earlier in the day, although my Tuesday classes are about the same grade level for the most part), but then I got a new student who brings up everyone around her and the serious ADD kid is coming under control. I started playing more active games in that class to get some energy out, and it’s especially appropriate because we’re learning about outdoor activities (snorkeling, surfing, playing hockey, ice skating… parascending?!) and it’s fun to act them out as they learn.
The later class I’ve liked from the start, or at least from the day they were Team Superman and Team Joker. They are full of energy in the best possible way, and seem to have decent English. My co-teacher in this class rules with an iron fist, so I always grade well-spaced and tidily written homework (for the most part), although when she subbed in for the earlier class’s CT, I was not as impressed with her work. I think she does better with the higher levels… or she was having a bit of the same shock I had with my early class! To be fair, they did abysmally on an assessment (vocab is their strong suit, verb conjugation is not).
One of my favorite kids in the later class is named Ernie, and he’s the one who always advocates for superhero/villain team names. After one of my first classes with his group, he showed me his Batman sandals and I was appropriately complimentary. When this class had oral tests recently, I decided to wear my Batman shirt, which he used to ask me a great question when it was his turn: “Do you like ….the… Do you like adventure movies?” I was very pleased, and apparently he was too, since now, whenever I see him outside class, he shoots me with some finger weapon. Today, I introduced him to grenades by throwing one to him and killing him. When he recovered, he followed me to the office and asked, “Teacher, what’s this?” [mimed hand grenade]. What a fun mini-lesson to be able to say, “That’s a grenade, Ernie. You pull the pin and BOOM!”
He learns quickly, because he dodged the next one I threw him and let it take out Teacher Jennifer and the copier.
Ahaha! That’s fantastic =P