Tales from the Cafegymnatorium, Volume 2

Let me tell you a story about a kindergartener I will call "Mo." Mo is a really cute little boy whose second language is English. For a while, I didn't know how much he understood because he was so reluctant to speak. Recently, we've had a breakthrough.

The other day at lunch, Mo raised his hand and instead of pointing to a garbage can or the drinking fountain he said, "I have four dogs!" I was surprised at this outburst of conversation from a normally silent child but responded enthusiastically to show I was excited about his effort. I thanked him for sharing and then moved on to the next student with a stubborn applesauce cup. Moments later, Mo raised his hand again. I approached again anxious to continue our conversation. Mo gleefully exclaimed, "I have five cats!" Again, I praised him for sharing with me. But we weren't quite done...

"I have three birds!"

"I have two sharks!"
"I have one tiger!"

And the coup de grace...
"I have one hundred robots!"

Since this breakthrough Mo has become even more outgoing. It's so exciting to hear him trying out English in conversation with other classmates and teachers! He's quite comfortable talking to me at lunch time and our normal conversation goes like this:

MO - *raises his hand*
EVAN - Yes, Mo?
MO - HiMyFriend!
EVAN - Hi my friend! *sticks out his hand for a low five*
MO - *alternating rapid low fives with both hands*

That's all for now. ByeMyFriends! - Evan

Tales from the Cafegymnatorium

I teach physical education at a kindergarten through 10th grade school here in Texas. My classes are pretty small as P.E. rosters go; thirty students, max. The tradeoff (or maybe the impetus) for having such small class sizes is a small gym space. Our "gym" also fuctions as the schools cafeteria and auditorium. A "cafegymnatorium," if you will. A consequence of my classroom doubling as the lunchroom, I have the assignment of lunch duty five days a week.

During lunch duty, I try to keep students from making a complete mess of themselves and the school. I also do food prep for young ones who can't open up the snacks packed in their Hannah Montana or Transformer lunchboxes (By the way young parents, don't ever buy "Gogurt." No student under twelve years old can open one of those tubes without a pair of scissors.) While walking around the lunchroom helping students peel bananas and unwrap lunchables, a kindergartener raised his hand to get my attention. I scurried over to his seat to help him out. When I arrived, the boy asked, "Coach Aho, can you open this for me?" Then he held up a plum. Suppressing a snicker, I explained to the boy it was a piece of fruit and he could just put it right into his face. He bit into it, then smiled and thanked me. Teachable moment? Check. - Evan