I may be coming home with more than just the typical yak
wool mittens and prayer flag souvenirs. There are a lot of them –sixty-four to
be exact –and can’t be easily stuffed into my luggage along with my hiking
boots and sleeping bag.
You see, my sixth grade class may or may not believe that they’ll
be coming home with me…
It started out as a casual lesson on future tense. We were working
on a writing exercise using “I will” sentences to talk about future holiday
plans. To get them started, I posted prompts on the board: Where will you go?
With whom will you go? Where will you stay? How long will you be visiting?
As I walked around the classroom, a group of chatty girls
were unusually quiet, scribbling away in their notebook, whispering and
giggling with one another. I asked what they were planning to do for their
holiday.
In her typical, dramatic fashion, Diya proudly stood up and
read, “I will go to U.S.A. with Annie Miss and I will travel in her bag. I will
stay in Annie Miss’s house for two years. I will find a job and live there.”
Before she could sit down, hands shot up around the
classroom. “Me too, Annie Miss! I’m coming too!” they started shouting.
Jokingly, I told them I didn’t think the airline would let
me on with that many bags.
But my sixth graders are quick problem solvers and without
missing a beat, they started choosing partners to share a piece of luggage
with. “See Annie Miss? We can all fit on the plane!”
This is just a warning in case I’m stalled for a while at
the baggage claim making sure I didn’t lose Rishi, Sourmaya, Kailash, Anousha,
Sasita, Dammer, Umesh and the rest of the grade six stowaways…
No comments:
Post a Comment