Celebrity

I see it as soon as Alison and I rounded the corner towards our office: a line of kids spilling out into the hallway, squirming its way through the doorway, past the other teachers and ending at my desk.I can't help but laugh--and then squeeze past them and to my desk as quickly as possible, swiveling my chair to face the first eager face.

"Hey, Teacher Bekah, what's up?"
"Not much, how about you?"
"Not much."

Yes, this is what's prompted the sudden flood of students: the chance to practice their English.

"Good job," I say, and hold out a bag of candy.

Okay, so that might have something to do with it, too. The first boy scampers off, and into his place steps the next in line: "Hey, Teacher Bekah, what's up?"

My ten minute break consists entirely in this dialogue, lifted from our Morning English lesson and repeated by this particular class, as I soon learn, on command, since their home room teacher had been less than pleased with their behavior that morning. She sits at the desk across from me as they file by, watching. The other subject teachers hover around the periphery, laughing at the spectacle, and out of the corner of my eye a catch a few cameras aimed my way as I talk with each kid and sometimes, on request, sign an autograph.

It had started as a simple idea, one which reminded me of my mom's teaching style and which therefore, I well knew, would very likely jump the tracks of orderliness and expectations. My thought process went like this: I want the kids here to be able to say "What's up?" "Not much"  instead of "How-are-you-I'm-fine-thanks-and-you?" Just saying it in a dialogue won't plant it in their heads. I have a bag of leftover candy in my office that needs to be eaten soon. *ding!*

"Today only, if you come to my office on break and say 'What's up?' you can have a piece of candy!"

And, well, it worked; even on those breaks which didn't include a press-ganged class of misbehaving 6th graders, I had at least 10 kids coming to try out their new phrase; as of now, my candy is about half gone, a fact that I love despite the fact that I have 3 more sessions at this grade level alone, without even factoring in the younger kids. But it worked: the kids are using this vital American phrase. And, as a bonus, I got a day of feeling like a superstar.

So, I'm going to need to be investing in some candy here pretty soon...