COMPETITIVE

I finally got a picture of these two little girls...if you'll remember an earlier post, the girl on the left (Angel) is the one who said she wanted to be a headmaster when she grew up so that she could hit the girl on the right (Tracy) for getting Student of the Day. (BTW, I don't do student of the day anymore, i just give out stickers to anyone who did well in class that day. I always get robbed of stickers...the students always convince me to give out a lot, lol).

In almost all my classes last week I reminded them that I was choosing the three best students from each class, but I didn't feel the need to do any reminders in this class because everyone knew who it was going to be. However, they both remembered that I had mentioned it the previous class, and came up to me during class to ask if I was collecting the names that day like I had said. I couldn't believe that they had remembered...well I guess knowing them...I actually can :) Of my 1300 students, they are definitely with in the top 5 best English speakers.

I think in the US we definitely need to watch out for Angel- one time I asked the class what they were going to do this summer and Angel told me that she going going to go to Boston so that she could visit Harvard....!! I said "Oh really, wow, do you want to go there? That is a really good school." She told me, "Yes, I want to go there, and I think it's not just a really good school, I think it's the best school in the world." Damn! She told me.

Tracy is also really smart, but she's much more at ease than the girl on the left and doesn't sweat things. The funny thing though is that she knows exactly how to deal with Angel...for example, if I haven't called on Angel in a while, she'll go "teachhheerrrr, next time, it's her turn." I definitely heed her advice, I don't think she's telling me that for nothing :) I think they are perfect for each other!

Sometimes Angel's competitiveness can be a little much though. For some reason, with the way the room is set up, all of the really good English speakers are one side of the room except for one teeny tiny little girl (Lucy) who has to carry her entire team. Well, one day we were playing a game that required throwing a ball at the board and Lucy was pretty much the only student participating from her team, however, almost every time she threw the ball it fell short of the board. The score was like 1 to 25. Finally, I told Lucy that she could stand closer to the board than the other students. Angel immediately protested this- she said, "no, teacher, she is small but she is powerful!" I was like are you serious, your team is dominating them! How can this be fun? I overrode her and let Lucy advance a few steps. Lucy was able to hit the target and Angel was like, "See teacher!!" Of course, Angel's team still won by like 50 points, but I guess it wasn't enough for her...lol. Lucy is the little girl in the very front in the middle. She's a sweetheart!
Angel will also cry if she does not personally dominate her other classmates. If we are playing a game where I put two students head to head, and she does not win, even if she has won 99 out of the other 100 times, she will get very huffy. However, if she just happens to lose that second time, then that's it, the water works come out. Man, if I were one of the other students, I would be pretty insulted that she thought it was ridiculous that I could possibly win over her hahah.

Although Angel is a little ridiculous, she is my most tenacious girl and I love her for that. She will be very successful because of it. Other girls here should take a FEW pointers from her, lol.