kids'll do the darndest things

every thursday the parents (of the students, taking part in the week-long camp) attend an afternoon tour of the school.  it stands to reason, then, that every thursday afternoon, we feel a little more pressure to be on top form.  we dress a little more formally ... maybe an extra lick of mascara here, a pair of earrings there.

the parents come to observe how the school works - the different classroom situations, the types of foreign teachers the school has managed to recruit ... basically, to see where their hard-earned money is going and to what extent their little munchkins are benefiting.  fair enough.

we obviously do our best to exhibit only the finest of teaching practices - so it's advised that we don't knock the kids about and light up a joint during these specific hours. 

the classrooms all have glass walls, so on these afternoons we find ourselves being peered at like a rare species of foreigner in an aquarium tank. 

this thursday was one like any other: 
dress nicely - check.
smile a lot and be friendly - check.
get the kids to do some kind of activity that shows how enthusiastic and involved they are - check.

so i'm teaching clinic (which involves expanding the students' english vocab on parts of the body) - and i've got the kids playing this drawing game in which there are two teams, racing against each other to construct a complete drawing of a human body on the whiteboard.  individuals from each team select a random flash card, read aloud the part of the body that is written on the card (eg: "feet") and then run to the board to draw said part.

<enter the parents>

the game is going swimmingly, with the kids showing great excitement and animation.  there are smiles and cheers and the lesson appears to be in the capable hands of this english-speaking creature.

<enter murphy's law>

in the frantic activity of the two teams jumping around, yelling out the answers and running to the board, the teacher turns her back to the drawings and focuses, just for split second, on assisting one munchkin with the correct pronunciation of "belly button".

moments later, as she returns her gaze, her eyes skim across the plethora of engrossed parental stares.  she smiles at them, with the confidence of a teacher who is completely in control of her classroom.   then, following their stares, she turns to find one of the boys completing his own contribution to the human body ... one very large, anatomically-disproportionate rendering of a penis.

aaah ... kids ... they're great aren't they?