Laugh or cry!

Random incidents in my class which make me wonder whether to laugh or to cry.

I have taught my class phonics and we have phonics drill almost on a daily basis. When some of the kids are not responding well to these, I take them out seperately and do it individually. On one such occasion, I am trying to make the student read the word 'sit'.
I show her the flash card with 'sit' written on it and ask her to read. She just stares -> read -> silence -> ok, read the sounds -> 's' 'i' 't' (she says the correct sounds) -> great, now put them together and read the word -> she says 'its' -> hm, whats the first sound? -> 's' -> so whats the word? -> she says '...st' -> so what happens to the 'i' -> she says 'set' -> whats the sound of i -> her little finger suddenly goes up and she asks: didi, can I go to the toilet?



I have taught multiplication and I am making them apply that to real life problems. I give them a situation. Your mother is going to the market to buy rice. One kg rice costs Rs.25. She buys 5kg of rice. How much will she have to pay for the rice? Suddenly I got a doubt whether they understand what kg is. So I ask them what is kg. 2-3 hands go up. I ask one, he confidently says 'junior kg, senior kg'



This is when I have made the kids laugh (or cry). I have told the kids to immediately raise their hand if they dont understand any word which I say. Usually I will translate the word in Hindi when they do that. Once I have said the word mattress while teaching the new book on work experience. The lesson was about children helping their parents in keeping their houses clean and that children should fold the mattresses and keep them properly in the morning. Few hands went up to ask what a mattress is. With all my Hindi innocence I replied 'gadha' (गधा). Some started giggling when I also realised what I said actually means donkey. Then I explained what a mattress is used for and then they taught me that it is a 'gadda' (गद्दा).