Encouragement

It's funny to me how last night I was thinking about how I want to encourage my students, and today I find myself encouraged in so many ways by my awesome students.

So here are three stories today of my students being amazingly sweet and thoughtful in different ways.

~~~

"What did you eat this morning?" Ice asked me before my first class of the day.

I thought for a second, trying to figure out if there was some context for this question (was I eating breakfast by the window this morning that she saw me?  had we talked about breakfast before?  did she have something she wanted me to try?) and drew a blank.  "Uh... bread... and yogurt..." I ventured.  "What did you eat?"  (This is what I always do when I get a question I'm not sure about... make them answer it too.)

"Bread and *something in Chinese*, I don't know how to say it."

"What is it made of?"  (This is a question that typically my students can answer with no problem.)

"Beets."

"Ah."

And then she went and sat down.  That was the whole conversation.  I'm still not sure why she needed to know, but asking what you've been eating is a way of expressing care.  Although it still catches me off guard.

~~~

As I looked around the class, I noticed that Luther wasn't there, which is uncharacteristic.  Especially since I ran into him twice yesterday and obviously hadn't forgotten that he existed.  I had even teased him yesterday about if he was going to show us some kungfu at break time, since that is his area of expertise and pride.  He said oh no no, and I said, what???  I'm so sad!  I wanted to see it!

Oh well.

So class began, and about four minutes in, Luther and another guy came in, carrying...
a stack of bricks.

They set them down on a desk and took their seats with a little bit of waving and smiling and looking sheepish.

At break time, while Lecrae was playing, Luther came up.

"In the next class, I will do a kungfu demonstration," he told me, grinning ear to ear.

"Okay," I said, not sure if he meant the second half of our class or the class after ours.

He meant the second half of ours. 

The video is on facebook.

(I did have a moment of wondering If he breaks his hand while in my class.... what's the procedure?)

I think the way he grins reminds me of my little bro Ib, with a sudden grin of pleasure that lights up everything when he is pleased. 

~~~

On my way to lunch (which was a PICNIC lunch with Sydney because it is beautifully warm today!) I saw my student Emma, from one of my translation classes and yelled her name enough times that she realized I was talking to her and we stopped to talk for a minute.

And then she hugged me.

Which caught me totally off guard, but was very sweet.

~~~

I love my students.  :)