The request: each student presents a speech, up to 1 min long, about their Golden Week. The result, student after student gets up and stands in front of the class saying nothing until their minute is up. Torture for them, yes, to stand in front of the class for one minute, but more toture for us, the teachers as we get to experience this 20 or 30 times, not just the once that the students experience.
Thank heaven not all the classes were as bad, though the “wakaran”s (I don’t know) were still high. The highlight of the last three periods: the girl who got up and, with some prompting, said, in English, that she hates English and doesn’t know English words, but she went to Marina City and spoke with Ms Tinney there. Ironically, hers was one of the longest speeches all morning! I told her after class that I was impressed by her trying and that she did really well.
Tori, one of my neighbours who teaches at senior high schools, said she now has some of my old students, as well as some of Rhiannon’s (the other neighbour). Our ex-students can’t even say their names. Wow. It’s great to be part of such an effective system *wipes the sarcasm off the keyboard*
Wonder if I can go home now?
Wow, that sounds familiar. One of my teachers had some students present their “treasured items” to my friend Brad, show-and-tell style. Several of them just let their item sit on the podium and stood in silence for up to six or seven minutes despite promptings. There were only six students in the class, but this activity alone took half of the class. Two students were really on, had things prepared, two stumbled and stuttered and laughed through, and two stood in absolute shamefaced silence for what seemed like an eternity. Did it end there? Nope, same thing in the next class, too. Thankfully, the third lesson of the day didn’t involve the “treasured item” bit, just a self-introduction. And all of this happened at my best school. Bleh. I hate it when kids freeze up like that. So frustrating…and…well…torturous. Yeah.
Oh dear. Not the most inspiring of things for a teacher. I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t teach it public speaking…
Surely they aren’t *all* like that???
No, not all of them, but the number of classes in which I feel like I’m pulling teeth with my bare hands outweigh those that don’t.
Here’s a good profile of you breathing fire in icon form…
snap..almost!
Wonder if the writing will work ok on the one you made….same pic I’m sure, but somehow mine ended up very pale and hard to make out…..
thanks for the icon which works!!!
They’re different shots, I think…I used the first one he took becuase I liked the profile in that one better.