One of my middle school students gave me a painting he had made today. I asked him to sign it and discovered that the kids don't know how to read or write in cursive. Lesson plan temporarily aborted, we spent the next several minutes practicing signatures. I wrote each student's name in cursive on a piece of lined paper and let them practice. It's been a long time since I learned cursive in 3rd grade, so I really had to think to remember the correct way to make all the letters.

After a few minutes of practicing signatures, we got back to the lesson, which was about occupations. I went around the room and had the students all say what they want to be when they grow up. There's no lack of self-esteem within this group! One student wants to be the CEO of Samsung and another a mathematics professor at Harvard University. I also have an aspiring English teacher, baker (not to be confused with banker--none of those in the class), doctor, and zookeeper in the class. One boy said he wants to stand in front of the train station and say "give me money," which is a standard joke for that class. Whenever someone is absent, I ask the other kids where he/she is. If they don't know, I have them invent excuses, which gets them practicing their English and engaging their imaginations. They really like to tell me that so-and-so is standing in front of the train station saying "give me money!" I thought it was pretty creative the first time I heard it, but it's getting a little old now. My younger, less advanced classes come up with much simpler but just as entertaining excuses. "He is dancing." "She is sleeping." "He is swimming." My personal favorite excuse for someone not being in class: "She is eating noodles." Well, yeah! If you're eating noodles, you can't possibly come to English class!