Game Day

Finally, something that completely sums up the teaching experience!

I keep finding myself thinking back on the education classes I took in my first two years of college. It has occurred to me that I have used absolutely nothing that I was taught! In fact, my most effective teaching methods have been thought up on the spur of the moment! When I recall all the hours I spent writing scantron tests and laboring over bulletin boards with perfectly straight letters handmade on a cutter, or transparencies with little white frames, I have to laugh. None of that is at all applicable to my situation!

Since today was Friday, it was "game day" for all of my classes. While this makes creating lesson plans very easy, it actually stresses me out a bit. I refuse to play games that don't in some way help the kids learn, and kids get bored playing the same game every week, so I wind up spending a lot of my spare time creating new games and making improvements to old ones. I have found a few websites, such as Genkienglish.com, which have helpful ideas, but mostly I rely on my own ingenuity. A lot of work goes into planning out games: I have to take into account how quickly and easily I can explain it, whether or not I need to teach anything new in order for the kids to play it, and any possibility of injuries or fights from the game. In other words, games frequently give me headaches!

Today I had a new game to try out on my E3-C class, which has been my worst class since I started. Strangely, they have made a sudden change this week and have been one of my best classes. Thus, I felt somewhat safe in taking the risk of playing a game that involves grabbing (normally I would worry about them killing each other in a game like that). I was delighted to find that they not only enjoyed the game, but actually got really into it. Plus, no one got hurt! I'm really, really hoping that this present good behavior is going to be the new norm for E3-C. Previously I hated teaching them, but this week I have not only enjoyed them, but have had the chance to bond a bit with them. I have discovered that they are very intelligent kids, who seem to retain information better than many of my other kids.

E3-C hasn't been my only surprise. When I first started, I was convinced that E5-A would be my worst class. Then, after about four weeks, Curt left the school. Suddenly, E5-A turned into a class that I look forward to. Evan and Leon, who misbehaved when Curt was there, have proven to be fun and intelligent students. If I could just get the three girls to talk, E5-A would probably rival E5-B as my favorite class. Amazing!

For E5-A, I decided to play "Apples to Apples" again today. I just taught them the game last week, and they really liked it. For those who are not familiar with the game, it is a game in which the players have cards with nouns on them, and they try to match the noun cards to an adjective card. Whoever has the closest match (in the mind of whichever student is judging), wins the round and gets the adjective card. The winner is the one with the most adjective cards at the end. It's a great way to help kids better learn parts of speech, and I also find it helpful in teaching more vocabulary. It's also fun for the teacher, as the kids' answers are frequently amusing (such as when Meg rejected the Tom Cruise card when looking for one that fit the word "bright"). Today, one of the words was "cute" and Jake announced that he had the best answer. He put in a card that read "my teacher." I love that kid!

I never in a million years anticipated liking teaching this much. I figured living abroad would be the best part of this experience, but in actuality, it's the kids. I love my students! I wake up every morning and can't wait to get to school. When I'm not with my kids, I find myself thinking about them and talking about them to anyone who will listen. I never saw myself as a "teacher type," but I guess I am after all. This is truly one of the most wonderful jobs I have ever held, second only to when I worked as a weekend director at a historic mansion. I think I have finally found my niche in life.