I seriously love my job.
Yesterday, I started a Travel Unit in my classes. One of the assignments I gave them was to roleplay tourists in a foreign country and what kind of communication problems they would run into.
I got the usual looking for directions, trouble finding a hotel, losing a passport, ordering the wrong food etc. A little boring, a little dry...but right on target.
Them being from a Communist country and not having stepped foot outside China due to passport regulations, I honestly didn't expect the roleplays to be too creative or off-the-wall.
But while I sat through the 10 mediocre skits, my mind started to wander to about the same time last term when I was teaching the same Travel Unit. The difference being I was teaching my beloved sophomore students. Those kids were the sole reason I wanted to continue teaching. Here's why:
I had given the same assignment and their "communication problem" skits were as follows:
-one student was pregnant, but they were still on the airplane. So she "gave birth" on the airplane they had re-created by lining up chairs together.
The scene was completed with the "pregnant" student rolling around on the floor screaming while the "passengers" looked on.
-another student couldn't find enough heroin to feed his addiction, so he had to ask the "locals" where to find some. The heroin was finally produced with the student using a pencil as the needle. When he got "high" he just slid to the ground and died.
**I'm not sure they really know what heroin is**
-another group had tourists arrive at a massage parlour, where the customers were unhappy because the girls weren't "pretty" enough. Finally, they were offered free massages, which resulted in 4 boys lying across the desks, while the 3 girls pounded on their backs.
Yes, these are the same students from Communist China who aren't issued passports. And yes, these are the same students who haven't stepped foot outside their villages in the North of China. Yet they really used their imaginations and really put some effort into these skits.
I have NEVER laughed so much in a classroom. I totally miss those kids.
My news ones are fun...but not as fun as Class 3 and 4.
**Scott Huntsman if you're reading this, I want my kids back!**
I got the usual looking for directions, trouble finding a hotel, losing a passport, ordering the wrong food etc. A little boring, a little dry...but right on target.
Them being from a Communist country and not having stepped foot outside China due to passport regulations, I honestly didn't expect the roleplays to be too creative or off-the-wall.
But while I sat through the 10 mediocre skits, my mind started to wander to about the same time last term when I was teaching the same Travel Unit. The difference being I was teaching my beloved sophomore students. Those kids were the sole reason I wanted to continue teaching. Here's why:
I had given the same assignment and their "communication problem" skits were as follows:
-one student was pregnant, but they were still on the airplane. So she "gave birth" on the airplane they had re-created by lining up chairs together.
The scene was completed with the "pregnant" student rolling around on the floor screaming while the "passengers" looked on.
-another student couldn't find enough heroin to feed his addiction, so he had to ask the "locals" where to find some. The heroin was finally produced with the student using a pencil as the needle. When he got "high" he just slid to the ground and died.
**I'm not sure they really know what heroin is**
-another group had tourists arrive at a massage parlour, where the customers were unhappy because the girls weren't "pretty" enough. Finally, they were offered free massages, which resulted in 4 boys lying across the desks, while the 3 girls pounded on their backs.
Yes, these are the same students from Communist China who aren't issued passports. And yes, these are the same students who haven't stepped foot outside their villages in the North of China. Yet they really used their imaginations and really put some effort into these skits.
I have NEVER laughed so much in a classroom. I totally miss those kids.
My news ones are fun...but not as fun as Class 3 and 4.
**Scott Huntsman if you're reading this, I want my kids back!**