Spitting Success

So, I have this class of crazy boys--two classes, actually--and they are always doing strange things. This one class in particular I feel is "my baby," because many of these boys were so awful when I started teaching them last year that I would not only remove any small distractions, but I would remove every removeable piece of furniture from the classroom before class started! At one point in time, I would simply pray before each class that no one would kill each other or themselves by trying to climb out of a window, running out of class and heading directly for the big paper cutter, or indirectly choking a fellow classmate with the string for the window blind.

Anyhow, at that point, with my great dog-training background, I started simply playing games and using "treats" with them, slowly teaching them to listen and obey directions enough to do things like play games and have a somewhat normal class period. And lo and behold--they are now my favorite class. Genki, crazy, and somewhat dangerous still (my most common line is still probably, "Kota! Sit down!"), they definitely take energy. But they are all excited to learn and smart, and while the 4th graders next door barely speak above a whisper, my boys are yelling at the top of their lungs "The student...is...at school." Hehe. They're really cute.

Anyway, this year one older boy joined the class, and I've been a little worried about the differences in maturity levels...but for the most part, the younger ones allow him to join in the yelling and learn something (even though he's a "cool" 4th grader!), and he tells them to stop being dork from time to time, which is good for my young ones too. :)

This last week, we were finishing the class by playing a random game--they were in teams, making words off of letters that I had given them, because we've been working hard on phonics stuff. Anyway, they were racing like crazy, trying to come up with words that start with "V," etc., and many time I had to ask them to repeat what word they had said. There was a short lull in the action when my older boy held up a Q and said something like, "Queen!"...which was great! The only problem was that he'd been trying so hard to have good pronunciation that he'd spit all over me in saying the word! He looked at me, having just spit on the teacher, embarassment written all over his face...and the rest of us burst into gales of laughter. He kind of looked around, then decided to join in, and the class then ended with most of us still chuckling over the experience.

I mean, really...how can you not laugh and enjoy teaching when students are trying that hard?! Even if it does involve some spitting... :)