Classroom Anecdotes

By Ruth

(Thanks to those of you who have left comments! I like seeing who is reading our blog.)

I went to class this morning but when I got to room 108, where my class was scheduled to be, the room was full of other students. I thought, “Oh no. I’ll never find them now.” The schedule seems to change a lot at the last minute and into the first few days of class, so several of my teammates have gone to class this week and their students haven’t been there because the students had a different schedule. I wasn’t sure whether my students thought class was at a different time or whether they were just in a different classroom.

So I spent about ten minutes wandering around the different floors looking in classrooms (at least these were students I taught last semester, so I know what they look like!). Coming back down the stairs, I saw several of my students in the hallway. On their schedule we were supposed to be meeting in a second floor computer classroom, which was locked. I don’t think that was right either, because they wouldn’t give us a computer room for Oral English. Fortunately, there was an empty classroom across the hall, and we were able to get settled in just before the bell rang. Now I just need to remember to find out about a permanent room.

It has been fun to see my students again. They are so cute, with their jagged hair done up in scrunchies or big, colorful barrettes. It’s also fun to have students who like me. I was noticing today that 16 of the 35 students were wearing glasses. Probably about twice that many are supposed to wear glasses, but a lot of students don’t like to wear glasses because it doesn’t look cool. I saw one student reach over and borrow her seatmate’s glasses to read the board.

In two of my classes I have students named Anna and Anne who sit next to each other and can’t distinguish the difference between the two names. I never know which one will respond, and sometimes I get confused about which one is which. It caused a problem last semester when Anne and Anna did their final exam together. After finishing, they came back a few minutes later and Anna said, “Um, we think that we were a little confused, so when you asked Anne a question, I answered instead.” I think I’ve gotten them straightened out now, but they still sometimes answer to the wrong name.