Job Discussion Forums

le0n · Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 786

Lets say you as an esl teacher were in class & prenteded to hear your mobile ring, you pulled a banana from your pocket, placed it to your ear and said "WEI"

You then put the banana back in your pocket and said to the class. " bad luck wrong number "

Would you get a laugh, looks of amazment or what ever?

Don McChesney · Joined: 25 Jun 2005 Posts: 656

The students would text you to tell you of your error.
The other teachers would think 'the dancing monkey has brought his own lunch'.

no_exit · Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 565 Location: Kunming

Looks of utter bewilderment, I imagine.

Last week I was teaching and a fellow teacher opened the door to the classroom just a bit, and waved a chicken wing through crack and said ominously 'fried chicken.' He then closed the door and went away. The kids stared at me in total confusion, and, to be honest, I was equally perplexed. ''shenjing bing'' I told the students, which means mentally ill in Chinese, and they all agreed and had a good laugh.

I like a bit of goofiness in the classroom to lighten things up. Do it and see what happens. They'll at least have a story to tell when they get home.

Yu · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 1219 Location: Shanghai

You might not get anything from them... sometimes students are just not paying attention to the teacher.

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

My students would beg me for the banana.

bubblebubble · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:45 am Post subject:

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

I think goofiness works well, when the timing is right! Just today I launched into teaching some Physics classes ... the majority of students are Chinese (not much of a surprise there).

My sponsor teacher loves to start off goofy, I observed him last week. Once he started class while munching on banana bread. He took a few chomps and asked, "Did everyone do your homework?" He then sang some Van Morrison while students took it out. Students laughed, then one asked what he was singing. The sponsor teacher said, "Don't you guys listen to music?" A student replied, "Yeah we listen to real music." Then everyone laughed.

I thought about modelling that, but decided not to. I'd rather start off strict and serious with these guys, then get goofier as time goes on.

Steve

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

I'm teaching little first graders this year. Without bragging too much, I pride myself on having fun, interesting lessons. We are almost finished with 'The Five Senses' in Science and we've been doing experiements. For example, for taste, I brought salt water, lemon juice, and honey and we dipped q-tips into each and rubbed them on the sides of our tongues to determine which area of the tongue detected which taste most strongly. We filled out a tongue chart and the kids had a blast. This is an example of a lesson you might see in my classroom.

The problem? The kids go CRAZY! I mean, like wild, screeching baboon crazy. And this is for any activity we do, whether it be singing a song, or doing some art, or coming to the board to do some math problems. If they are not engaged every second for the full 40 minutes, they get bored or easily distracted and start talking or playing (or ignoring me). I don't want to be this stern taskmaster (and, really, who does with 1st graders?), but the minute I start acting silly or goofy or we are doing something "cool" and non-textbook-y, it takes forever to get the class back under control and we've lost (up to) 5 or 10 valuable minutes. Even my TA finds it hard to calm them down.

Any suggestions?

Chris_Crossley · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:49 pm Post subject: Baby say WEI!

Whenever my 17-month-old daughter plays with someone's mobile phone (usually, her mum's) and says "WEI" lots of times, everyone in the vicinity pays attention to her - and she loves the attention!

Perhaps we ought to bring babies to class?! They just might prove to be the tool we need to make those spoilt brats pay attention to what we are trying to teach them!

Starry Night · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:39 am Post subject:

If the kids ever get unruly, I pull out the dreaded word list for 'chorale practice', either that or I leave the room for five minutes. Works every time.

Mideatoo · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject:

My students would literally “explode hilariously" and climbing back onto their chairs, they would say something like “…so cool…”

nolefan · Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1458 Location: on the run

my kids would just try to out-weird me! we've been playing this game for a year and a half and so far, i'm still on top! I'll give them all an A when they can do me in.......