The playground..and lessons on teaching.

Today was like any other day at work~ only a LOT more fun and interesting. I find that if I implement some sort of game, or activity into my daily lesson with the kids I teach, everyone seems to have more fun and concentrate better. Including myself! So for example, I start off the class saying "If we work for 10 or 15 minutes, we'll play Bingo! Or Hangman! Or make Origami and play games!" That usually sets them off to listen-to-the-teacher mode.

For the past few months, I've felt a bit lost and overwhelmed~ everyday, becoming more and more arduous in keeping track of what we did during class; trying to keep track of the students progress; and constantly trying new ways to teach the material to make it interesting to the students, and less boring for myself.

SO I changed from 'teacher' to 'fellow student' and took my first class students to the playground right next to the school. It was probably the most fun I've had in a very long time! The kids saw that I took my other first-class students yesterday to the playground, and they were jealous. The next thing I knew, I enter my students' class today and they're all ready to head outside and go to the playground! The kids walked in a line, one after the another, even without my yelling for them to stay together and watch out for cars. They're a good group of kids~ I think they're trained well!

We played on this spinning thing with bars and a platform. One of my kids yelled for me to get in the middle, and before I could say 'hang on', my head went spinning as I gulped for my kids who were half-hazardly hanging on to the bars, letting their feet fly, laughing like uncontrollable jumping beans (that's a strange picture!) This made me more concerned about the possiblity of them flying off and finding one of them with a broken arm or a bleeding head. In the end, it turned out alright, and everyone had fun, laughing and chattering away as we headed back to school.

These kind of days make me reflect about the kids I teach, and that occasionally letting your guard down and having fun isn't such a bad thing, afterall!