My ESL class

I don't know if I've mentioned this on here, but I volunteer teach an ESL (English as a second language) class. I didn't think I'd like it that much, and at first I was really scared and discouraged because a lot of students stopped coming once I took over the class, and one week I actually didn't have any students. Well I've been teaching for over 6 months now and I've actually ended up loving it.

None of my original students come anymore, which is sad, but I have a lot of new students that come pretty much every week. In fact, my class has kind of exploded from having a max for 3 students each week to now I regularly have about 6 students! They are such good, sweet, people, and they work really hard, which makes me want to work really hard to teach them things they need to know.

I decided to take a little break from learning verb tenses to share with them amazing things of American culture that they have missed out on from not growing up here. What have I begun to share with them?

Books. Childrens books. Books that I grew up loving and they have never heard of. We were talking about natural disasters last week, and so we talked about tornados, and I started talking about The Wizard of Oz. I was shocked that none of them had ever heard of it! I pulled out my phone and made them watch this scene. I love being able to share with them things that I have grown up loving!

So the children's book I started with...none other than Dr. Seuss

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I had mentioned "Sam I am" and none of them knew what I was talking about and thought I was funny as I was explaining it. So I decided to bring it in. At first I was just going to read a bit of it, but then I have decided to turn it into lesson plans involving listening. I read them the whole book, and have them write what they think I said. Then I re-read the whole book showing the pictures and the words, and let them see if they made any mistakes.

Well, I don't have any kiddies, so I had to borrow these books. Luckily my mother in law has a whole bunch of Dr. Seuss books. So far, I've read them Green Eggs, And Ham, Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish, and this week I read Are You My Mother?

Side note, just googled Are you my Mother and realized that it's not a Dr. Seuss book. How did I never know this? The outside looks just like a Dr. Seuss book, that's probably why! What do you think?

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Anyway, I borrowed a bunch of kids books from my mother in law. She said that she thought Dane, my brother in law had really loved Are You My Mother?. This is where Hal interjected and reminded his mother that it was he who loved that book. They both have the worst memories! When I opened Are you my mother? this is what I found

How cute is that! Then I opened A Very Hungry Caterpillar and this is what I saw

In case you can't tell, this is what it says For my Sister Christa Bralr (Brother) Hal.

How stinking adorable are these? I'm going to have to look through all of her brooks now to see what is in them!

Don't you love how kids realize it's someones birthday so they look all over the house for something that they can give them? They;re just so sweet and innocent about it. My nephews always really work to decide what to give someone. Last year my nephew Jefferson gave me his pocket thesaurus. Why did an 8 year old have a pocket thesaurus, don't know, but Hal thought it was the coolest gift. What gifts have children given you?