The Ministry Of Silly Walks

I have a student, we’ll call him Alex, since that’s what I think his English name is supposed to be. Whenever Alex goes up to the board to answer a question, he wants to hop or skip or crawl or dance back to his seat. He’s not the only student who does this, in fact most of my boys have tried it once, but stopped when I scolded them.

So every day, sometimes more than once, I say “Alex! Come back here and walk properly!” This isn’t exactly the kids’ vocabulary, but my tone and their knowledge that you’re really not supposed to be robot-walking around the room gets it across. It causes the embarrassed floor-stare but never the blank look that means I’ve spoken too much of the barbarian tongue.

Anyway, today Alex went to the front of the room, and showed us Square and Circle. When he turned to go back to his seat, he lifted his arms like a cartoon runner.

Before he could move, though, a little girl shouted “Alex! Come back here and walk properly!”