Today, I need a bit of a boost. Friday's can be a bit rough because my two two-hour classes are both 12th graders who demand more out of their lives than textbooks, usually they all want to go get a cup of coffee. Some of the other teachers let them. And mine get angy when I say no. So, today, I brought in the artillery. Every volunteer gets a copy of the international version of Newsweek every week and I store them up for days like this, when I know I'll have a small battle on my hands in the classroom.
They're really just great insta-activity. They're full of pictures, so I can, on-the-fly, have them do creative story writing or play-acting based on a picture I give them. Also, the articles are useful since they use a level of vocabulary just barely over the heads of Bulgairan students studying English as a second foreign language. That is, the students understand all of the entertainment articles and very little of the articles about Iraq or the economy.
With that in mind, I can have them read an article, and write down the words they don't know. For each student, the most important of these words goes on the board and every student gets to know them.
The point is, my students love when I bring in entertaining things from outside Bulgaria. Newsweek holds their attention well, but many of them get bored when they realize how much of the magazine is *gasp* politics. Fortunately, that boredom only lasts until a new batch of Newsweek's comes into the classroom (a few months later) and they renew thir hope of a magazine filled with I don't know what.
Also, I did something crazy this week. I agreed to chaperone one of the 12th grades at their little 12 grade party tonight. Reports on all the legitimate craziness (One of my colleagues asked me how I could agree to it, knowing that all the students would just be drinking and dancing. And this is a school party, remember) sometime later this weekend.
Posted by Rob at October 14, 2005 05:32 PM