Silliness with Students
It’s my last class of the day at the education centre I work at.
It’s gorgeous outside – as we’re all well aware because my classroom
has a huge window opening up towards the sun. It’s obvious we’re
all eager to be outside rather than inside learning/teaching. Ew! We’ve
all been feeling a litte bit silly because of the sun. Kevin
is one of my favourite students (because I like playing favourites)
because he’s really bright (doing grade 10/11 workd while in grade 7)
and funny and well rounded. I guess he was having an off day
too…
He tells me about how he’s got a new pen pal from Holland. And then asks me where Holland is exactly.
Me: Oh, it’s north and a little over to the east.
Kevin: Isn’t it more south?
Me: Oh no, it’s more north than south.
Kevin: Isn’t it south near Mexico or something?
Me: Er,… it’s in Europe – the Netherlands…
Kevin: Are you sure because I remember reading it in a book somewhere…
I then attempted to draw a warped map of the world and pointing out
the Netherlands in Europe. And then Vancouver and then Mexico. Kevin
was still unconvinced. So I tracked down an old student atlas we had
and had to show him exactly where Holland was. And it turns out, what
he thought was Holland was Honduras. And to make him feel better, I
told him that up until recently I thought Bolivia was in the Middle
East. Turns out I kept mixing it up with Bosnia. (FYI: Bolivia’s in
South America.)
At the end of the day, he and I are discussing his plans for
the summer. He tells me he’s gotten into a summer school
program at BCIT.
Me: Oh yeah? What’s happening there?
Kevin: It’s for computer programming. Video game making and stuff.
Me: OH WOW! That’s so cool!
Kevin: Yeah, you get to make up your own video game.
Me: What kind would you make? RPG?
Kevin: Yup! *smile*
Me: I’d love to make my own video game too. Although I don’t know what kind I’d do.
Kevin: Probably one about marking and stuff, right?
Me: HAHAHHAHA! Oh Geez, No! Hahahahahaha!
Can you imagine a video game about marking?
Find as many grammatical errors as you can in thirty
seconds. Go! Figure out which one of these papers is plagiarized. Put
these short answers from best to worst.
Or in two player mode, it would be like BishiBashi where you’d race
against each other to see who can finish marking the multiple choice
test first. Or who can keep the students awake the longest with your
lecture. Or who can catch as many students cheating during a test.
Ooooh boy,… yeah that would be one heck of a video game.