Skating Student Quote of the Day: Where DOES flattery get you?

Student: Where do you live?

Katrine: I'm not telling you.

Student: Can I come to your house?

Katrine: No!

Student: Why not?

Katrine: Because. (this was post-teaching, thus my lack of valid reasons)

Student: I like your shirt!

Katrine: Thank you.

Student: Now can I come to your house?

Katrine: NO!

Skating Student Conversation of the Day: Fireworks

I am attempting to teach children to do backwards wiggles. My lesson is interrupted when Katy Perry's "Firework" comes on.

8-year old: THEY'RE PLAYING 'FIREWORK' AND I'M GOING TO GO SEE FIREWORKS LATER!

Me: Stay off your toepicks! Keep your feet parallel!

8-year old: I LOVE THIS SONG! I LOVE KATY PERRY!

Me (struck by inspiration): Katy Perry doesn't skate on her toepicks.

8-year old: Katy Perry doesn't skate!

Me: How do you know?

The 8-year old is stumped. Point, Katrine.

Aside: I will continue to update this blog at my convenience. This may mean every month and a half. It may mean every six months. Or once a year. I'm scared of commitment.

So, about that BBQ...

I'm back. As my time abroad will be coming to an end in about three days, I can now shift focus from the paraphrasing of my life and posting travel pictures and return to skating and YA lit. To make a nice, graceful transition (going from working in France and returning to my quote of the day series), I give to you a quote from one of my French high school students.

Assignment: write a phone dialogue between two friends where one calls up the other to say that the first one won't be able to make it to a planned barbecue.

What was turned in: 'Hello, you don't want to eat a barbecue, goodbye.'

One of those lovely teaching moments where all you want to do is start laughing. Aside from the whole lack of a dialogue thing, how does the person talking know that the other person doesn't want to eat a barbecue? Or is the person answering the phone being uninvited? For that matter, how does one eat a barbecue? Are they planning on devouring the entire party, or perhaps just the grill?

This is what happens when students have English first thing on a Monday morning...

Skating Student Quote of the Day: On Specificity

Student: Are those things on the things for the thingy?

The sad part is that I knew almost exactly what the student wanted to know. He was asking about the purpose of hard skate guards.

Skating Student Quote of the Day: Hello, young lovers, whoever you are, I hope your troubles are few

From a 6th grade guy, talking to one of his friends at the rink: "Relationship troubles, huh?"