Poppy

Thankfully, most of my kiddos, or as my mom calls them, elves (for ELLs), are picking up English very quickly. I have one however who will repeat any gobbledegook he hears, no matter what language, without actually understanding the meaning of what he is saying. He's my little parrot. So this is happened.

Elf: "Book?" *Points to book with cars on it.*
Me: "Yes, this is a racecar book. The cars are in a race to see who will win."
Elf: "Please?" (read me the book)
Me: *Reads the book while elf watching pictures*
Elf: When the book was done,  he's so excited he prances around holding up the book saying, "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Parrot: *Grabs a world atlas and follows the elf* "Racecar, racecar, racecar!"
Me: "This is a book, say 'book'"
Parrot: *Offers me the book to read* "Racecar!"

Awesome.

This is our classroom monster named, Poppy. In the spirit of classroom management, students tend to get along better when they create something together. And while we're singing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" we might as well get something out of that vocabulary. So I had them create a monster. They decided how many eyes, hands, legs, and the expression Poppy should have on his face (angry of course, their favorite word). Then I had them create where Poppy lived, apparently under the sea with the sharks. The most amazing thing is that they LOVE Poppy. So I actually got them to play Simon says with the version, "Poppy says ... " And Poppy is also our moral compass. "Would Poppy be running in the classroom?" ... So it's turned into "What would Poppy do?"

And now on a completely unrelated note ... it is finally time for me to possibly try plugging in my camera. It's about to die, but I've been holding out for this moment because I don't want to fry it in the socket. Then I would have no camera at all (same result if the battery dies I guess). So I was talking to my TA and she said she'd look at it to see if she could tell if the voltage would be compatible. Wouldn't you know, she starts cracking up and shows me, "Made in China". Of course it is. But will it work in China ... ????????

Also, as a sign of how much I would REALLY like my body to adjust to the time zone difference, yesterday I tried putting body wash in my hair as conditioner. And this morning I tried to put my contacts in while still wearing my glasses. Time to adjust and no longer be groggy!!!