Signs That The End Is Near

While I was making what I hope to be my final copies of the year, I noticed this sign posted on the bulletin board in the copy room:

First I read it as if I was my 2 year old niece. "Papoh ah gon. It ah gon." This is reminiscent of the time we were sitting in church and my 3 (almost 4) year old niece wanted some crackers. My 2 year old niece, who was holding a HUGE bag of crackers, clutched the bag to herself and said "It ah gon, Pay. (That's how she says her sister's name.) It ah gon."

Perhaps they could have put a few conjuctions in the phrase. THE paper IS all gone.

Then I read it as if it came from one of my student's writing stories. "Paper ran go away."

Let me explain...

At the beginning of the year my principal informed me that I was going to have a unique student. He was Japanese. He and his family had just moved from Japan two months ago. Only the dad spoke english. He chose for me to be this boy's teacher because I had been to Japan the year before....for 10 days....so I was highly qualified.

For the first two months or so, my little Japanese student sat, stared and listened to all that was going on in class. He would watch what the others were doing and follow along. He would make hand gestures to the other boys when they played. We learned some Japanese phrases which made him smile when we'd try to pronounce them. I learned how to say a few things in Japanese to "get the point across" on the assignments. I had my trusty "English to Japanese" phrase book with me. We all learned how to write a few characters in Kangi.

He knew how to say "Teacha, can I go za bataroom?" and "Watah, please, teacha, watah?" (Bathroom and drinks are VERY important.)

Due to what I attribute to very diligent, hard-working, caring parents, he began to thrive in school. There were a few incidents when he would get frustrated and cry because of communication issues at recess. I'd send home notes to his dad who would try and figure out what happened. And then he'd send me notes back. We have a journal full of conversations.

The first story my Japanese student wrote in class made me very happy. It was humorous (for a first grader this can be rare). It followed a pattern. It was all in english, a language he only started learning 4 months ago. This kid is SMART.

Here it is in his words:

"Man is eat a cheese but cheese ran go away.

Boy is eat a steak but steak ran go away.

Woman is eat cake but cake ran go away.

Man is cry boy is cry and woman is cry.

Everyone is cry."

I did help him re-write it with correct grammar so the final product sounded something like "A man wanted to eat some cheese, but the cheese ran away." I like the original version best, though.

The class thought it was funny. Now that he's more comfortable in class, can converse more and knows how things work, he is a very outgoing boy. Everyone loves him. He makes jokes even III laugh at sometimes.

He is now one of the top readers in my class. He has always been the top math student in the class.

And he has changed the way I think. Now I read signs like the one above: Paper ran go away.

I like it.