November 8-Kiss-And-Tell

There’s been a lot of kissing going on around here.

Yesterday, during class, Jack was messing around in class, like he usually does. However, today he wasn’t being disruptive to the class; he was really getting into the lesson. Jack is the kid that I can’t help but love, even if he’s a snot most of the time; Jack is also one of my students whose English skills surpass those of the other students’. Jack simply doesn’t speak all that much because he’s usually running around the classroom.

In any case, he was very responsive in class and participating in the lesson and continuously surprising me with his English vocabulary. I can’t exactly recall what impressed me to make such a bold move, but I grabbed Jack, who sat beside me, tickled him and then planted a kiss on his cheek. The entire class gasped and giggled; Jack blushed and pushed away from me. Surprising the entire class (including me), he kissed his hand and gently smacked my cheek with it; everyone giggled. I ruffled his hair and said, “Aw, Jack, I love you.”

Jack grinned at me, his dark almond-shaped eyes turning into slits, and said, in perfect English, “I love you, too, Teacher.” I already knew this kid had a crush on me—I suppose I’m not doing anything to deflect his attention. What a freaking cutie.

Another kiss-and-tell-story involves Lily, my student with super squinty eyes, prominent dimples in her chin, and a knack for hugs. She is the most Chinese-looking of all my students—her eyes are almost literally slits. Lily always gives me hugs when she comes into class and has kissed my cheek in the past. This morning, for some reason the topic of kissing came up (I think we were discussing what not to do when it came to keeping your hands to yourself, like no punching or pulling hair, and one of the boys modeled kissing and said, “No, teacher.”), and Lily, who sat beside me, grabbed my face and pulled me down to her height. She kissed my cheek with a satisfying, “Mwah!” and then giggled.

As she prepared to leave at the end of class, she ran up to me and made a kissy face, like she wanted a smack on the smacker; I kissed my fingertips and lightly touched her lips with them. She gasped, pleasantly surprised, and skipped away. It warmed me considerably.

I just love my kids.