Student Funnies...

As many of you know I work at an elementary school that houses 400 students K though 5th grade, including 25 children who are emotionally disturbed (ED). I see about 55 students, including about 9 ED students, for speech and/or language therapy.

Thus far I've heard some pretty funny things coming from the mouths of my students, from the youngest to the oldest, they make me laugh repeatedly. Periodically I hope to share some of the funny things I've heard. Who knows...some day I may be able to write a book!

I was reviewing opposites with a second-grade student, always starting with the easiest, I asked, "what is the opposite of cold?" She quickly responded, "hot". We continued at a rapid pace, hard/soft, dark/light, etc. Then I finally stumped her..."What is the opposite of rough?" She thought long and hard and hesitantly responded, "meow?"

Part of the assessment process includes collecting a language sample from students. This basically involves a brief conversation with the student talking about like and dislikes and writing down 25 of their utterances. One kindergarten student asked what I was writing and I gave a simplified version of what I was doing. He looked at my notebook wide-eyed and said, "I am saying all those big words?"

Lastly, a group of fourth-graders were working on learning new vocabulary. One of the words was "successful". This word brought us into a discussion of what it means to be successful. Of course most answers revolved around making money or having a family. I asked one student how he intended on making so much money. Of course I anticipated aspriations being a doctor or a lawyer, but no...he said, "I'm going to be on Deal or No Deal!"

I'm sure there will be more stories to share over the coming months, at some point I'll write more about my job and my responsibilities at Daniel Young.