Lake Antonio and the Soviet Onion

I am teaching the states and capitals. It is a lesson I think is brushed over in school.  The memorizing is important.  Learning about the country where we live is important.  Each time we talk about a new state or city, the students either express their desire to go there or they share an adventure they had visiting a place.  Either way, their faces light up with the memory of a good experience or the dream of one they would like.  We often use the globe as well as the book and some videos.  I bring in pictures of the places I've been and any souvenirs I've purchased. 

Teaching and correcting papers is a learning experience.  You can have a lesson planned down to the pencils you're passing out and still, some other idea or concept sprouts from the lesson and you're down another path.  You have to be very flexible when you're teaching.  Sometimes, you're teaching a lesson, it's going smoothly, and no one is asking any questions to clarify anything.  You've succeed in getting the concept across in a way that everyone understands; and with so many different little brains and distractions in the room, getting everyone to understand at one time is a real accomplishment.

I thought I had done that.  We were talking about the great lakes.  I gave a paper to work on finding information about the individual lakes.  I told them about HOMES and how to remember the names, where they were located, etc.  I was correcting the work yesterday, and this one student who is always a joy to work with even though he can be 'challenganging' he always brings an interesting perspective to what is being discussed.  Anyway, I was correcting his paper and he has labeled all of the lakes, I'm checking the names, Lake Superior, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Antonio...what?  It made me laugh out loud.  At the end of the assignment, I wrote:  Do you have a question about what we've learned so far?  He wrote:  What is soviet onion?  I was stumped.  Though we did talk about what each state produces, onions never made it into the discussion and we've never talked about soviet anything.  Then I remembered the globe.  It has been in the classroom for years, and the students like to see where we are as compared to other places we talk about.  They also like to spin it and touch their finger to it, as it spins, to see where they will 'land.'  The Soviet Union is labeled on that globe.  After backtracking through the day, (he had the globe)  I smiled to myself once I understood.

It made me think, though.  We assume people are understanding what we're saying when we're saying it.  Even when they say they understand, do they really understand what it is you were trying to say?  Regardless of how gingerly we choose our words there are times when what we say is not what 'they' hear.  That miscommunication is no one's fault, but it can cause a lot of frustration and arguing if you don't stop and backtrack to understand where the person is coming from.  It makes communicating more deliberate. Word choice becomes more personal. A conversation requires more time and patience.  But isn't that relationship worth it?