Even though exams were finished on Tuesday, the students in my middle school still have two more weeks of classes until summer break starts. This, I know I will not understand no matter how long I live in this country, or however many times it is explained to me. Did we do this when I was in school? I honestly can’t remember? Anyone who went to an American high school in the 80’s (and remembers back that far) care to illuminate?
Mentally, the students are already on vacation, and so are the teachers, and so am I come to that, so “education” is happening only in the very, very loosest sense of the word these days. Walking through the halls today I’ve seen one class watching a horror movie, and another teacher apparently just having a rap session with her students. My favorite though is the class where the teacher had drawn three Sudoku puzzles on the blackboard marked “easy,” “medium,” and “hard,” (in English even). Being a Sudoku addict myself it was all I could do not to walk into the class, sit down and start working out the solutions.
For my own classes, I am teaching the old campfire song “Sippin’ cider through a straw.” The idea of doing this song came to me some time ago, but I resisted for a number of reasons, having to live with that song for an entire week chief among them. By Tuesday evening I hadn’t come up with any better ideas, so I printed up a lyrics sheet, and wrote up a quick lesson plan, even managed to find a midi file of the melody, and voila!
The lesson has been working well for the most part. I start with a Chilsung Cider bottle and two straws as a prop (Yes, I know that’s not the kind of cider the song is talking about, but it’s just a song people, it’s not important). We do the first verse as a chant, practice a few times, then I pass out the lyric sheets and we have a go at the whole song. As it’s a follow-the-leader type song, it involves a lot of me singing, which hurts, and the cigarettes between classes don’t help either. Some students “get” the song the first time through, but most don’t until I go back and explain a few things. They’re having fun with it…I think. I’m having fun too, but ask me when I’ve done this a few more times, and I might give you a different answer.
Mentally, the students are already on vacation, and so are the teachers, and so am I come to that, so “education” is happening only in the very, very loosest sense of the word these days. Walking through the halls today I’ve seen one class watching a horror movie, and another teacher apparently just having a rap session with her students. My favorite though is the class where the teacher had drawn three Sudoku puzzles on the blackboard marked “easy,” “medium,” and “hard,” (in English even). Being a Sudoku addict myself it was all I could do not to walk into the class, sit down and start working out the solutions.
For my own classes, I am teaching the old campfire song “Sippin’ cider through a straw.” The idea of doing this song came to me some time ago, but I resisted for a number of reasons, having to live with that song for an entire week chief among them. By Tuesday evening I hadn’t come up with any better ideas, so I printed up a lyrics sheet, and wrote up a quick lesson plan, even managed to find a midi file of the melody, and voila!
The lesson has been working well for the most part. I start with a Chilsung Cider bottle and two straws as a prop (Yes, I know that’s not the kind of cider the song is talking about, but it’s just a song people, it’s not important). We do the first verse as a chant, practice a few times, then I pass out the lyric sheets and we have a go at the whole song. As it’s a follow-the-leader type song, it involves a lot of me singing, which hurts, and the cigarettes between classes don’t help either. Some students “get” the song the first time through, but most don’t until I go back and explain a few things. They’re having fun with it…I think. I’m having fun too, but ask me when I’ve done this a few more times, and I might give you a different answer.
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