Hellllllll-llllllooooooo~~~~~~~

Is how I always greet my classes. I never really noticed how I was saying it until one day I started class *without* saying it and the children became quite agitated. “Teacher, what’s wrong? No Hellllllll-llllllooooooo today. You okay?”

One class in particular, two elementary boys and a girl, anticipate my greeting every class. They sit in their seats, watching the door. As soon as I burst in, they sit up taller, taking a deep breath. I start my greeting, and they say it with me. They’ve gotten quite good. They’ve begun imitating my intonation when they answer questions in class. Which at first annoyed me, but now I just laugh.

Tonight the lesson was about countable and uncountable nouns. We had read the dialogue and I was explaining the grammar lesson. When I’m teaching they often will mouth words as I do, or imitate my hand gestures. Again, at first it annoyed me, but I then I thought, “at least they’re paying attention….” Tonight as I was delivering the lesson, I noticed one of the boys had already completed the first exercise. I then noticed they had all completed it. I quickly thought to myself, “Have we already done this lesson? I didn’t think so.” I was obviously confused, and they were obviously pleased with themselves. So I asked them, Have we already covered this? Did I forget? “No, teacher.” But, but you all have already done the first exercise? How? They all faced me with huge grins. “During break. We want surprise you. We study lesson. We know.”

This is one of those moments when I’m really glad to be a teacher….