Here's a list of things that have happened the first week back during my 4th semester that outright has made me laugh and smile.
1. Card Game
Q: What would you do if you lived on the moon?
A: I would pick stars
Q:Would you rather be deaf or blind?
A: I would rather be deaf because to see the world is very important.
Q:Would you rather be rich or beautiful?
A: I would rather be rich so that I can use the money to be beautiful.
2. Mike's Dialogue
Me: Who in the class has a girlfriend?
Students: (in unison) Mike!
Me: What is your girlfriend's name?
Mike: No
(laughter)
Me: What is her name?
Students: (in unison) Say the name!
Mike: Mike!
(laughter)
Me: What. Is. Your. Girlfriend's. Name?
Mike: (in Chinese) Mimi
Students: (translate) It's a secret
3. Tokens
I had a bunch of change lying around my apartment and so I came up with a brilliant method of getting my students to participate during my oral English classes. Every time a student would speak in class, I would give them one penny/dime/quarter that represent points. When I explained what a token was, all the students' faces stretched tall, eyebrows lifted and with enthusiasm they all yelled, "How much money??"
When I told them I needed it back at the end of class, they all gasped and made a sad pouting face. I told my site-mate about this and she called me a capitalist.
4. Adjectives
After giving my students a list of names and a list of adjectives to play a name game so that it could help me remember their names, they chose the names and wrote it down on the attendance sheet. Suffice to say , they misunderstood the activity and I was left with these names:
- Cheerful
- Jelly
- Lovely
- Smiley
- Dizzy
- Wacky
- Witty
5. Stereotypes
After asking the students how can stereotypes be good or bad, I had these vocabulary words written up on the board:
- Stereotype
- Hot Pot
- Obey
- Terrorist Attack
- Stab
- Habit
- "Pointing Fingers"
6. Thank you Moses!
I've been desperately trying to tell my students that America is diverse and we have many different nationalities, so the whole "All Americans are Christian" is not a true statement. When I asked them if this was true or false, they all said false. I asked them what other religions are there in America. The first thing that they all said was, "Jewish! Just like you." I finally drilled it in their heads. WINNING!
7. Color
Spring, 2013 I taught the Freshman classes. I assigned all of them to color groups that they would belong to for the entire semester. This semester I had a great opportunity to teach the same students I had that year. This is great because the students get used to you, accustomed to your habits and methods of teaching. I handed a piece of paper so that students could write down their names and student ID's. In the background I heard, "Do we write our color groups also?" To many people reading this, you might not get why this is such a big moment for me. Let me explain-this made incredibly happy and proud to know that the students who had me a year ago still remember my class, no matter how minuscule the detail is.
