Thursday, November 13, 2008

Laughing towards you not at you

Obviously, working in an ESL setting will generate some things to laugh at. When those times happen I am usually able to hold in my laughter. I don't want the kid to feel badly for something they did not say/do intentionally. Usually I will save the story for later so I can laugh then. Yesterday though I could not help it. Jesse is one of my best students. He works carefully and quite hard so it is rare indeed for him to get anything wrong, ever. Well, French had an oral test yesterday where I asked them questions (in French) which they had to answer (in French). I told them if they got confused to just say anything so they would get at least one point. One of the questions I asked Jesse was "Where is the dog?" The correct answer was to indicate that there was no dog. Jesse's response was "Max is in the classroom.", essentially calling his best friend a dog. I could not hold my laughter. In fact I laughed for about a minute before I could ask him his last question. I felt badly because I know he was confused and at least making an attempt. I did give him a bonus point though; my policy is that if on a test or something, if a student makes me really and truly laugh (intentional or not) they get a bonus point.

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