This week I finally get the break I thought I would get last week.  I have classes from Monday through Wednesday, but even then I have one fewer period on each of those days.  The teachers have asked me if they could “borrow” some time to review with their students. It’s fine by me.  So all told, I will have ten classes this week instead of my usual twenty-two.  Schwing!

So for the classes I do teach, I’m doing a very simple review game I learned some time ago.  I cut some different colored papers into fours and marked them A,B, C, and D.  Each table gets a set of these.  I ask the class a question and give them four possible answers, multiple choice style.  To help avoid cheating (they are all masters of it, the bastards), I count three and they all have to show their answers at the same time.  In other words, I don’t want students hesitating, looking around, and then showing their answer.  On the board I have drawn a very simple game-board diagram.  Obviously, when they get an answer right they move ahead one place.  Sometimes I mix it up by calling for a two-point question.  The game has one major drawback.  When one team gets behind, they tend to stay behind.  So once they get that they can never win, they tend to lose interest pretty fast.  Usually a competition will develop between the two or three smartest groups, and for them the game is a blast.  Rolling a die would solve the problem, but then when one group is taking a turn, the other five would check out until their turn came around again.  There’s no perfect solution.  Just like life (sigh!)

Anyway, today, in an hour actually, I’m taking my computer back to the shop for more testing, and probably more repairs, so updates might be sporadic for a while. It’s gonna be a long week.