With ten minutes left in class, I was feeling the pinch of an extremely successful initial activity that I milked for an extra ten minutes before cutting it short so the students will enjoy it next time. A roving dictionary salesgirl walked in. Per custom, she had the floor. All progress detoured to her stop.
One of my students, a precocious little girl who pushes me to be at least a long leap ahead of where this lesson's grammar is going and next lesson's content will head, started a whispered cadence of what, in America, would translate as "Yes'm, yes'm, yes'm," spaced about every other of her heartbeats while she finished the assigned work. .
I was sorely tempted to "shush" her.
But I was laughing.
The salesgirl kept waving the translating dictionary about, with excited waves of "Only 380 Baht!"
And Mook kept whispering a steady stream of, "Yes'm, yes'm, yes'm" without looking up.
I guess you had to be there to see the humor. But when the salesgirl left, carried by a wave of cheering, Mook held up her sheet and shouted, full volume, "TEACHER, FINISHED!"
And the class went silent because Mook is a dark-skinned Isaan girl who's not supposed to be smart and certainly shouldn't finish before the rich kids.
It was a glorious moment.
One of my students, a precocious little girl who pushes me to be at least a long leap ahead of where this lesson's grammar is going and next lesson's content will head, started a whispered cadence of what, in America, would translate as "Yes'm, yes'm, yes'm," spaced about every other of her heartbeats while she finished the assigned work. .
I was sorely tempted to "shush" her.
But I was laughing.
The salesgirl kept waving the translating dictionary about, with excited waves of "Only 380 Baht!"
And Mook kept whispering a steady stream of, "Yes'm, yes'm, yes'm" without looking up.
I guess you had to be there to see the humor. But when the salesgirl left, carried by a wave of cheering, Mook held up her sheet and shouted, full volume, "TEACHER, FINISHED!"
And the class went silent because Mook is a dark-skinned Isaan girl who's not supposed to be smart and certainly shouldn't finish before the rich kids.
It was a glorious moment.
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