Funny Stories and Funny Shirts

Two funny stories today from my after-school classes.  The first doesn’t have any great quotes or anything, I’d just forgotten how funny kids are when they’re upset.  Two kids, Kim Ujin and I Yunmin, were upset with each other after class.  You see, to get my kids to talk more I divided them into three teams, and then I make each a day competition.  The team that talks the most wins the day, and the team with the most wins at the end of the semester gets candy (little do they know I’ll give them all candy).  Anyway, Kim Ujin’s team, team 1, beat team 2 by only one point today.  After class, Kim Ujin and I Yunmin were arguing in Korean.  They wouldn’t/couldn’t elaborate with me about what, and I’m unsure who started it.  Anyway, I made them both apologize to each other and shake hands.  They were super mopey about doing this, which was hysterical.  I struggled to keep a straight face. 

Before I get the second story, I must explain my famous new acronym: TTT.  TTT refers to “Teacher Tummy Time,” because whenever we stretch in the beginning of class my shirt rides up and my tummy is visible.  This always generates a big (negative) reaction from students, so I always say “Relax, it’s just TTT.”  My fifth graders have really taken a liking to this phrase, and whenever we are going to stretch Gwon Hyok always yells “TTT!”  The students then accuse each other of liking TTT, which always leads me to proclaim “Everyone loves TTT!”

Anyhow, today’s stretching started out like any other.  I told the kids to stand up and Gwon Hyok shouted “TTT!”  But then I Dongmin, a kid who was initially fairly quiet but now is more vocal and I’ve really taken a liking to, pointed and me and said with a menacing face “Teacher, cover your T!”  I nearly died laughing.  Since I was sweatpants today (it’s gotten effin’ cold), I pulled them up.  When we stretched toward the sky, my T was successfully covered the students gave me a loud ovation. 

Another funny moment worth noting today, though not technically a story, is that today’s after school topic was “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.  At the end of class, when we sing together, I told the kids I’d give bonus points if they sang in Louis’ voice.  Their renditions were pretty priceless.

Before I sign off, there are some funny shirts I’ve been meaning to share.  So here they are, in no particular order.

• A sweatshirt featuring a cartoon character with a smiling face and a circle for a stomach, though just lines for arms and legs.  A shooting star was coming out of the stomach and the following is written below, in all caps, “I AM OF THAT BOOMING HAPPY FEELING”
• A black sweatshirt featuring block neon letters which read “MAKE LOVE NOT BABIES”
• A t-shirt that looked like one of those generic Abercrombie Athletic shirts (or whatever brand makes them) but the front just said “SPORTS” across the chest with a big “23” covering the rest of the front.  Then in the bottom right there was one of those “Since 1978” stamps, because that’s when sports were invented.
• A hoodie with a big smiley face and a caption below reading “Be Smile.”