slackers

Every week we have "Daily Life Vocabulary," which is meant to be, well, English you use in daily life, but sometimes it's a little random. Like this week we had words about school, and it included words like slackers.

I usually have my students write a conversation using some of the words. So the one girl comes up to read hers, and it starts out with a teacher and student talking...

Teacher: Give me your homework, or you'll have to go to the staff room.
Student: But the bell rang! I don't want to be tardy!
Teacher: Shut up, slacker!
Student: Today we will have Weekly Assembly.
Teacher: I told you to shut up!

I cracked up and made the mistake of telling the class why I was laughing. Now every time I tell a kid to stop talking the class bursts out with "Shut up slackers! I told you to shut up!"

(Disclaimer: although my students do imitate me sometimes, I don't tell them to shut up! I tell them to be quiet or I'll throw them out the window. But they know I'm joking.)