From Jamie's Philippines Pics

We have also had the opportunity to travel to some amazing places in China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bali. We have archived all of our travels and living experiences abroad; and if you wish, you can read about our adventures by finding the archives on the right of this page and by checking our Photo Album.

We appreciate all of our family and friends who have stayed in touch and emailed us with encouraging words throughout the year. We hope you will continue to keep us in your thoughts as we continue our adventure of living abroad teaching at an international school. For those who have stumbled upon our site, check out the "About Eric and Jamie" section on the right for more information.

Thanks for checking us out!

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."
- Mark Twain

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
- Maya Angelou

Eric
School: ebrown@isgdh.org

Home: ebrown2324@gmail.com

Jamie

School: jbrown@isgdh.org

Home: jkwbrown@gmail.com

Skype: "ericandjamie"


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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Story Time

As a teacher, you will occasionally have a story that you can tell over and over again. I have many of these. Some I have shared, and some I either forget to tell or just haven't for whatever reason. The thing is kids are funny creatures. Middle schoolers, in particular, are a strange breed; of which I have discovered is international and not just contained in Tennessee and Georgia. Students will do and say things that make you laugh or just cock your head to the side and say "Really?" They will write things that will really make you wonder and sometimes even cry, for good and bad reasons.

Oh, there was the time I convinced a girl that her cat really did have 9 lives. There was the time that I told the same girl that all 535 people in Congress lived in bunkbeds in the capital dome. There is the girl who wrote on her 2004 Presidential Election scrapbook as one of the major issues of the candidates... "War on Tourism." (Down with the cruise ships!) Another stellar performance in Georgia History occurred when I had my students draw a map labeling the borders of Georgia. My first week of teaching surprised me when a student placed Africa above Georgia. Africa? Really?

Of course, many of you have heard by now of the student last year who told me that I would need to learn to speak Spanish if I moved to China.

Oh, the list goes on and on. Yesterday, I had a student come up and ask if he could go next door and buy a lunch. It seems as though his 1st cook didn't make it in to cook his meal for him and the 2nd cook didn't know what he wanted. Poor thing. The funnier side of this story is that he actually brought a lunch to school, set it down on a table near the lobby, and forgot about it. Poor 1st and 2nd cooks always get the blame (I'm sure many of my readers can relate).

Jamie has her share too and the hits keep on rolling. She had a student she just couldn't convince that they actually spoke English in England. He just kept saying "Well, I can't understand a word they're sayin; That ain't English."

So, occasionally when there is a slow week of blogging, I'll throw some of these in here. I'll title them Story Time, so I can check back and see what I've mentioned.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha ha! I like story time! Trey is starting to come home with some great stories from middle schoolers now. They are so entertaining. (1) One of his GA history students wrote in an essay- "The south wanted slavery and the north wasn't down with that." (2) A GA history student asked "if the world is round, why don't we fall off when we reach the edge?"

Unknown said...

Don't forget the reason buffalo wings are chicken

Eric Brown said...

Oh, the buffalo wing story. A classic in and on itself. I'll save that for another day, but thanks for the reminder. That one also has the blood type in it. Cheerleaders are always good for a laugh!

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