Quotes to think about

On Tuesdays, the kiddos have to pick out nine words and draw pictures of them.  Help them to grasp the meaning of words and such.  I was helping one of my girls (that also happens to be ESL) with the word 'dam.'   I asked her to read it to me:

Girl: "D- A- M (sounding out) mmm ap!"
Me: "try again"
Girl: "D-A-M dam!"
Me: "Good! Now, what does dam mean?"
Girl: "Um, Something you say when you are cooking?"

Lesson: watch what you say around your kids!  They pick it up quickly and may not even be aware of what it means.  However, it does make teachers laugh to hear the things that come out of their mouths.

"You gotta watch out for me. I am tricky, I will just trick you right there!"
-Another one of my Y girls

That one was just funny to me.

We were having a rough week behavior wise.  I gave them a nice long lecture, two days ina row.  And a lesson in how a line works.  They practiced lining up and walking together until they could do it correctly three times in a row.  Man, I felt like such a drill sergeant.  But it worked.  I came in the next day and this is what they had to say:

Kids: "Miss Sarah! Today is your lucky day!"
Me: "Why is that?"
Kids: "We decided that today we are going to do what you tell us and listen really good! We planned it!"

One of two things happened:

1) They DID NOT like practicing lines instead of free play for an hour and so were scared into behavior. Or,

2) They actually wanted to please me

My guess goes for the first, but I think some of them genuinely cared about my feelings. If not out of true concern then because they know when I am happy they have more fun.

Anywho, kids hear what you say. Even if they don't act like it.  They are smarter than they let on and hard workers.  Give them credit and take a lesson from them.