麻辣校园

                                  Three Questions to Ask

Are you happy today?

Are you ready today?

Are you lucky today?

Every time cheerfully, I start my class by asking the students the three questions.

Yes, I am happy today.

Yes, I am ready today.

Yes, I am lucky today!

They will answer aloud in one voice, with the classroom filled with an echo of excitement and enjoyment, an atmosphere specially needed for English learning.

Every time I will ask them why, and they may come up with different answers; sometimes I will find some reasons for them or add something to theirs.

One day as a couple of students came late, I didn’t raise the questions as usual and simply started the lesson immediately. A boy in the front row reminded me of the questions by saying: “Teacher, you haven’t asked us the questions”.

Okay, now let me ask you the three questions as usual, I exclaimed, and the students seemed to shout their answers with delight.

An inspiration, an excitement, a current of warmth suddenly hit my heart, like a magical finger touched the right key of the heart’s keyboard, producing a comfortable, pleasant, thrilling melody that resounded with the echo of the students’.

There and then, with the heart and mind and body completely warmed up, I seemed to better understand the meaning of the word “Interaction”, the phrase “To strike a chord with someone”, Helen Keller’s “Three days to see”, and another writer’s “Three days to live”.

Well, these three questions are not simply what I should ask the students, but also what I should ask myself every time when I enter the classroom since a teacher’s happiness actually lies in the students’ happiness, readiness comes from students’ readiness, luckiness results in the student’s luckiness.

Oh, three days to see, three days to live, three questions to ask and answer!

As I am still able to live, love, learn, I have every reason to answer the three questions positively, every day, every month, every year……….

(July 24, 2008)