I have a 7th grade student who goes by Lisa. She's pretty smart but she's a bit of a space cadet, and she will often seem to forget she's in class, and do odd things: burst into song, stand up out of the blue, that kind of thing.
At one point, she'd grabbed my collection of board markers from the tray on the whiteboard, and began arranging them in order by color, in a row on her desk. I didn't comment.
But then she was hitting some index card she held in her hand against the edge of her desk. Thwack, thwack. A seemingly pointless exercise, and bit annoying.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
For no clear reason whatsoever, she remarked, barely missing a beat: "Traditional Korean Culture."
This was a kind of joke, I suppose. The other kids found it amusing. And then it became a running gag in the class. Every time a student did something strange or annoying, I would say, "What are you doing?" and they would answer, "Traditional Korean Culture."
Justin leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs, precariously. A very common activity among students of that age. "What are you doing?" "Traditional Korean Culture."
Julie lay her head on the desk, because she was suffering one of her fits of giggles. "What are you doing?" "Traditional Korean Culture."
Like that.
[daily log: walking, 7km]