May 24

A success story!

I find that the best ideas for games and activities come from dedicated teaching YouTube channels and not the foreign teacher file sharing website. If I have to see one more “Avengers Speed Writing” game I’m going to throw my (admittedly already terrible) computer across the room.

A woman who worked in Japan had a great video about the directions lesson.

And so I found myself drawing a giant 16 square checkerboard on the blackboard. I had made arrows, collected a few choice giant playing cards (Joker, ace, 2, 3) and allowed the students to suggest places. One class had me draw a bakery, a gopchang restaurant, and a yogurt factory. The last suggestion came from a boy who had incorrectly shouted “I love yogurt” when trying to guess sentences.

They had more fun driving their little arrows around than I expected. GJ, the home room teacher in 6-3, even volunteered to play a round. I saw her in the teacher’s lounge after the next class where she had printed the same game board on letter paper. The other homeroom teacher was also sorting a similar stack.

“The kids really liked this game so we’re going to play it again!”

I’m not sure if they were going to play in English, it was not clear, but I’m happy that my activity was interesting enough to be coopted by the homeroom teachers!