Mad Gab Moment

Words, words, words. Some of the most frustrating and most hilarious moments of teaching this summer has been trying to teach vocabulary. Frustration sets in when students stare at me blankly, when I'm not sure if they don't understand because they don't know the language or because they've simply turned off their brains for the past few minutes. Humor sets in with word pronunciation and definitions.

Earlier this week, I was giving the term "sleeping bag" to my fifth graders as part of their list. Having checked the Spanish translation with one of the older, native speakers, I wrote the translation as "sleeping" (though probably it should have been something like "slipin" to keep with Spanish sounds. Alejandro piped up and said, "Miss! No make sense! Sleeping is sleeping?" He had a point, but I wasn't sure what to say since that is what they call it. However, I fortunately had looked up the dictionary word, which was "saco de dormir," and told him that. Suddenly, he shouted, "Oh! Sleeping is sleeping!" and he and the entire class cracked up. It was very much a Mad Gab moment.

It has never occurred to me before this summer, either, how important it is to say beach correctly or to pronounce tidy with a long i. Funny, funny.