Well, today was quite the Crazy Day at Preschool. Everyone was amped up from the weekend, I suppose, and showed this in their own unique way. Lunchtime and playground were by far the craziest times of the day, although the rest of the day was a close third. Lunch probably won because we had general craziness plus a throw up. Playground came in second because we had general craziness, the parent of the sick child to call, plus two "We Keep Our Pants Pulled Up at School" episodes.
One of these was completely my fault. It involved one of my English Learners, and while he's catching onto some things, he still has a lot of English to learn. We were just done with playground cleanup and the conversation went like this:
Child: Drink, teacher?
Me: Oh, you can get a drink at the water fountain over there before you line up.
Child: (beginning to edge toward the gate of the fence) Drink, teacher?
Me: (looking away at the other kids). You can get a drink outside. Then after that you can get another inside.
Child: ....(silence as he starts to go outside the gate toward our room, looking concerned).
Me: (seeing him outside the gate). No, no, no - go over there for a drink! (I point dramatically over to the outside water fountain, thinking this will help his understanding).
Child: Okay. (And off he goes that direction).
The problem with this conversation is that I was thinking all the way through it the words he was saying were the words that he actually meant. However, the truth is that the words he was saying really meant something completely different. So, actually the conversation really went like this:
Child: Bathroom, teacher?
Me: Oh, you can go to the bathroom at the water fountain over there before you line up.
Child: (beginning to edge toward the gate of the fence) Bathroom, teacher?
Me: (looking away at the other kids). You can go to the bathroom outside. Then after that you can go to the bathroom inside.
Child: ....(silence as he starts to go outside the gate toward our room, looking concerned).
Me: (seeing him outside the gate). No, no, no - go over there for the bathroom! (I point dramatically over to the outside water fountain, thinking this will help his understanding).
Child: Okay. (And off he goes that direction - and pees in the bushes right by the kindergarten windows.)
Sigh. Okay, we'll have to work on those important vocabulary words.
Or, we'll have to just never assume that words mean what we think they mean. Especially with this particular student.
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