| |
This week's Student of the Week is Mursal N. (another 5-time Wadge math student). And, once again, I need a photo of this lovely human being. I would be most obliged if someone would send one to pwadge@vsb.bc.ca (Thanks again Moe!) In my opinion, one can never be too old to have a few heroes in their life. My heroes these days include my grandfather, single parents who raise happy children, Terry Fox, and this guy. So, who is he? (Chocolate prize for whoever posts the answer first)
Sixteen years ago tonight the best thing that every happened in my life... happened!! My little baby girl came into the world and my life was forever altered. I never used to understand what my parents meant when they said they were proud of me all the time. Proud of me? For what? I haven't done anything... But now I know... Happy Birthday Dearest Sophia!!! Can't believe you are already 16!! And can't believe I ever got so lucky to have YOU as my daughter. You are truly the best!!!! And now, just to embarrass you a little... (hit it maestro!!)
Grade 12's: you can do BETTER than this!!! Make my dream come true and make a transformation-dance video. Please....!!! Here's Hieu and Yanal teaching my Math 8 class.
Highlights included the following: (1) having the day's topic - "Multplying Fractions" - misspelled on the board for the ENTIRE lesson (look closely in the photo and you can see it) (2) Hieu revealing the puzzle answer before anyone had answered it... whoops! (3) Yanal saying - without a trace of irony - to one student: "Put that away. NOBODY texts in MY class!" (4) Hieu apologizing to me at the end of class for speaking a tad harshly to one student. Again, with no irony, "I'm sorry Mr. Wadge but that guy can be really annoying. (5) Hieu telling a very quiet ESL student: "you're a really smart guy, you know that?". The boy had a big grin on his face. (6) best of all - Yanal pointing at a very unconfident math student and saying "you come up and do the next one on the board". I literally flinched. Anyway, Yanal and Hieu were great with him. Urged / helped him through the problem and then started a round of applause when he finished. The boy returns to his desk, turns to the kid behind him and exclaims loudly (I'm not making this up): "I was literally shaking up there. But when you actually do the work it's not the bad. That was pretty fun". Way to go guys! Proud of you! You are both naturals! You connected with some of those kids better than I have all year (Honestly!!). Hope you enjoyed it! Become teachers and we can hang out together on professional days!! :) This week's student of the week is Yanal M. I have taught Yanal in grade 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. That's all five years of high school! Some teachers tell me this "must have been very difficult" but I can honestly say I have always enjoyed having Yanal in my class. As I've said before: you can get away with a fair bit in my class, as long as you are funny... and Yanal's a very funny guy.
I remember the very first day I taught Yanal in grade 8. I looked at his name on the attendance list and thought: "Uh-oh, how do I pronounce this name". I believe when I called his name I had it rhyming with "channel". But then Yanal, with a big smile on his face, responded: "no, it's pronounced YAY-nal" (rhyming it with "anal"). I quickly realized that this was NOT how you pronounce his name... but I was impressed by this little grade 8 guy. I figured:
These three terms - smart, confident, and funny - still describe Yanal well. After five years I'd also add personable, thoughtful, and friendly. Yanal is one of those BIG personalities that come to define an entire grade of students (I'm sure years from now, KG teachers will say "Was 2014 the Yanal Marji grad class?"). Lucky me to have gotten to spend approximately 500 hours of class-time with this guy! All the best to you Yanal. It won't be the same without your wry smile, quick wit, and BIG hair (!!) next year. Thanks for all the laughs and all the good memories... [By the way, the (wonderful, amazing, beautiful) young lady in the photo is my daughter. No idea what the deal is with the tongues but this is the photo Yanal wanted... when the Student of the Week speaks, I listen.] |
P. WadgeI am your teacher. Obey me. Archives
June 2021
Categories
All
|