Named after my beloved Grandpa, Daniel is just seven years old. He is a beginner. Our school has 12 different classes based on a student's English proficiency, Daniel is in the second lowest class, Seedbed 1. He is anything but fluent and still makes mistakes. But he can read! The purpose of Seedbed 1 class is to really hone student's pronunciation and learn phonics. Reading is required, but some students struggle. Daniel is the second student profiled, because he has really shown a lot of growth in the two and a half months I've been here. Daniel once struggled reading but not anymore!
There are many amusing things about teaching small children. For example, they love to stand up. Why? I have no idea, but in any given class, at any given time, I might have 15-20% of the children in the room standing up. They might be excited. They might want to answer the next question. They might not know the customs of adults, so they do what they want. Some of their feet don't touch the ground while they sit, so maybe that's why they stand. I honestly don't know. Daniel is a stander, and not only does he love to stand up, but he loves to walk around the room. What separates a stander from a walker is obvious, right? A stander just stands at his/her desk or in extreme cases on their chair, but a walker wanders around the room.
Daniel is nosy. He likes to see how people are doing on whatever task is at hand. He likes to compare his answers to theirs. He likes to be at the center of the stage, a prominent fixture of the classroom. So if I might be heading to the board to erase something, Daniel might be there to do it for me. There's an abundance of reasons why Daniel walks around. It's safe to say that of all my students, Daniel leads them all in the amount of times I have to say "Sit Down."
I also think, as evidenced by his rapid growth in English and extroverted personality, that he will be an excellent English speaker in a few years.
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