Two of my students, girls aged about nine, were wearing Warriors jerseys to school on Thursday (due to a talent show performance). Names changed to protect the innocent. :)
Me: Oh, you've got Warriors jerseys on!
Rose: Yeah, we wore them for the talent show. Do you know the Warriors?
Me: Of COURSE I know the Warriors!
Anjali: I love Warriors! I love Warriors!
Me: You do?
Anjali: Yes! They win win win. They play basketball and win. Many time. Lose a little bit, but okay.
Rose: But they didn't go to the championships.
Anjali: No championship. No. Little bit lose. But I love Warriors!
At this age, I was like, "I love books! I love music!" Was I even aware of professional basketball?
Friday, May 25, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
So... that's... uncomfortable
Wow. So much can happen during one half-hour of speech therapy!
First, as I was walking with a student (a smart, charming boy who is quite talkative and popular) from the cafeteria to the speech room, I see the principal marching purposefully from his office. A staff member said to him, "He's standing over there by the fence." I looked over and saw a man, standing against the short chain-link fence, watching the kids playing on the field.
Yes, it could be that he's lonely. Maybe he has children or grandchildren who live far away. Maybe he lost a child. Maybe he's taking a break while walking around the neighborhood and sought the shade of the trees.
And yes, he has a right to take a walk. However...
Considering that the neighborhood has a very high rate of sex offenders - some who are not allowed to come that close to school grounds - the principal had to check it out.
Ick.
Then, as that student and I are doing speech, we come to the phrase "peach fuzz". (We're working on figurative/idiomatic language.) We talked about how, when his dad shaves, his face is smooth. The next day, a little bit of hair has grown on his face, and that is "peach fuzz", because it feels like the fuzzy skin of a peach (more or less). The conversation then progressed down a path I wasn't quite expecting.
(Scene: Speech room)
Student: Yeah, my dad has peach fuzz.
Me: Well, that's how we got that phrase.
Student: Look, the peach is fuzzy in its butt crack!
Me: That's not a crack. It's more like a... seam.
Student: My dad has fuzz in his butt crack.
Me: I don't think your dad would appreciate me knowing that. It's private.
Student: Well, he's also got a lot down there. (Pointing to crotch, under table.)
Me: Umm...
Student: Yeah, not in the middle, but all around... it. (Moving pointer finger in a circle.)
Me (seriously): Okay, back to the fruit.
Student: My mom does too.
Me (more intently): So--
Student (interrupting): I know because I see it every day. When they take a shower in the morning. It's gross.
Me (louder and firmly): OKAY, NEXT IDIOM. What's "apple of my eye"?
(End scene.)
You know, you just don't want students to think that discussion of that stuff is wrong or bad. However, you also don't want to discuss something that their parents should be discussing with them. (Although we do have students who are really Deaf/HOH and their parents can't discuss anything at all with them because they don't sign, so it's up to us to tell them about puberty, etc.) So it's a fine line.
But that was definitely 511.
I can only imagine what's going to happen if he tries to relate this story to his parents after school. Oh boy.
First, as I was walking with a student (a smart, charming boy who is quite talkative and popular) from the cafeteria to the speech room, I see the principal marching purposefully from his office. A staff member said to him, "He's standing over there by the fence." I looked over and saw a man, standing against the short chain-link fence, watching the kids playing on the field.
Yes, it could be that he's lonely. Maybe he has children or grandchildren who live far away. Maybe he lost a child. Maybe he's taking a break while walking around the neighborhood and sought the shade of the trees.
And yes, he has a right to take a walk. However...
Considering that the neighborhood has a very high rate of sex offenders - some who are not allowed to come that close to school grounds - the principal had to check it out.
Ick.
Then, as that student and I are doing speech, we come to the phrase "peach fuzz". (We're working on figurative/idiomatic language.) We talked about how, when his dad shaves, his face is smooth. The next day, a little bit of hair has grown on his face, and that is "peach fuzz", because it feels like the fuzzy skin of a peach (more or less). The conversation then progressed down a path I wasn't quite expecting.
(Scene: Speech room)
Student: Yeah, my dad has peach fuzz.
Me: Well, that's how we got that phrase.
Student: Look, the peach is fuzzy in its butt crack!
Me: That's not a crack. It's more like a... seam.
Student: My dad has fuzz in his butt crack.
Me: I don't think your dad would appreciate me knowing that. It's private.
Student: Well, he's also got a lot down there. (Pointing to crotch, under table.)
Me: Umm...
Student: Yeah, not in the middle, but all around... it. (Moving pointer finger in a circle.)
Me (seriously): Okay, back to the fruit.
Student: My mom does too.
Me (more intently): So--
Student (interrupting): I know because I see it every day. When they take a shower in the morning. It's gross.
Me (louder and firmly): OKAY, NEXT IDIOM. What's "apple of my eye"?
(End scene.)
You know, you just don't want students to think that discussion of that stuff is wrong or bad. However, you also don't want to discuss something that their parents should be discussing with them. (Although we do have students who are really Deaf/HOH and their parents can't discuss anything at all with them because they don't sign, so it's up to us to tell them about puberty, etc.) So it's a fine line.
But that was definitely 511.
I can only imagine what's going to happen if he tries to relate this story to his parents after school. Oh boy.
Dreams
Had a weird dream two nights ago. I was at a supermarket - like Albertson's, or Safeway (ha! funny when you read the rest of this dream....) - and a bunch of us are standing in the parking lot, looking at the cloud of smog hanging over the city skyline in the distance.
"See, that's the gas," someone says. "We can see it over there, but it's hanging over us, too."
So we all go into the store and close all of the doors. And I'm sitting on the sofa (!) in the store, talking to my old classmate Seaton from middle school/high school. And then we all have to go into a smaller room. And we're trying not to breathe because the green gas is coming in the vents... and I see people dropping around me... and I realize that I, too, will breathe in the green gas, and I'll die, and there's no way to get around it.
I think I'm concerned about global warming.
Am I the only one trying to conserve energy and water around here, people? HELP!
"See, that's the gas," someone says. "We can see it over there, but it's hanging over us, too."
So we all go into the store and close all of the doors. And I'm sitting on the sofa (!) in the store, talking to my old classmate Seaton from middle school/high school. And then we all have to go into a smaller room. And we're trying not to breathe because the green gas is coming in the vents... and I see people dropping around me... and I realize that I, too, will breathe in the green gas, and I'll die, and there's no way to get around it.
I think I'm concerned about global warming.
Am I the only one trying to conserve energy and water around here, people? HELP!
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