It’s the first year of Vacation Bible School in my dad’s new church, and everyone wants it to be a success. Parents have been interrogated about their children’s allergies to avoid snack-time disasters. In addition to the usual contraband crafts materials (glitter and permanent marker have been banned from decorating Sunday school popsicle-stick crafts from […]

Yesterday Stick made a bulletin board for his class, showing the kids’ vocab words “morning”, “afternoon” and “evening” with the sun in the obvious positions for each time of day.
“It looks okay,” his TA said when she saw it. “But why did you make the sun yellow?”
“Uh… what color should the sun be?”
“Red, the sun […]

There’s a boy in our school, his English name is — well, it’s not important because no one calls him that. The foreign teachers call him Huh? and the Chinese teachers call him Shenme? It’s the word he says when he realizes you’re addressing him. He’s not dumb, though. If you can take him away […]

Amy campaigned tirelessly to be called a “postal worker” and not a “mail-cyclops”.

Dr. Colin gives a booster shot of anti-gravity serum to his young patient.

Although being a giant firefighter was a rewarding career, Kim couldn’t find pants that fit comfortably.

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Dear Mom,
Can you send me some jeans for Christmas? I want the same size 6 boot cut Gap jeans you got me last year, they were perfect but I ripped them sliding into my seat in Duck Duck Goose.
Love,
Meg

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Today I did a lesson on clothes which involved my kids asking and telling each other what they were wearing. My kids have uniforms, so to prevent a mind-numbingly repetitive class, I had some students dress up.
When I pulled out this dress, my little girls fell over each other asking to wear it. It worked […]

If this picture had accompanying sound, it would be “TEACHER MEG!!!”

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Tags: teaching wee ones

My TAs insist that Pike, Elics and Filick are English boys’ names. Their reasoning behind each choice is that they know someone by that name. I don’t doubt it for a second, but my role as imported English teacher is to reduce giggle-worthy Chinglish, not spread it.
Anyway, it’s probably better that I’m not allowed to […]

“Stick, I need to get on your computer to print my skit for class.” My skit is a brilliant adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes, with Chinese characteristics.
“Right now? I’m in an instance!” That means fighting WarCraft bad guys on a Very Important Mission. “Just connect the printer to your computer. Here’s the USB cable.”
“Ok.”
“NOOOOOOOOOO! […]

These are my honors students… you have no idea how hard I tried to convince them NOT to give the peace sign in this picture. I think it’s an involutary reaction, when a Chinese girl sees a camera, she has to make the V sign.

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