More dots

(Not these dots, but just as funny.)

The tests I do 4 times a year are finished and we are now watching films for a bit. At least, the students who did their part before the test are watching. The rest are writing essays.

This is a system I came up with partly to motivate students to try in class and partly to fix the problem where I miss classes and don’t have time to catch up. What happens is that I see each class once a week, and if that class gets cancelled for whatever reason, I start falling behind. Often the same class gets cancelled two or three weeks in a row. By only teaching three actual lessons and filling the extra periods with games that reinforce some aspects of those lessons these movies as a reward, I have a chance to catch up with the classes I missed.

During normal lessons students get Movie Points for putting in some effort in class. I say effort because that is all I am looking for. Students seem to think that finishing is all that matters. Finishing is easy. All you need to do is goof off for 40 minutes, copy everything from your friend who put in the effort, and voila. You get no credit from me for that. I give two points per lesson and if a student manages 4 points from 3 lessons, they get to watch the film after the mid-term or final exams.

The students writing the essays sit in a separate room. Staying with is boring, really boring, and sometimes I do things to entertain myself. Yesterday I had a red board marker and was giving every student a little red dot where their hair parted. It is funny for a few minutes, it washes away after a while, and no one sees it unless you tell them to look for it. Also, the pen was running dry and the dot was barely visible.

Most of the boys thought it was quite funny. Most of the girls didn’t like it and just asked me not to do it again, but still saw the funny side, and some students were of the “Meh!” persuasion. One girl, however, decided to turn drama queen and was literally crying Snot en Trane (Afrikaans for Snot and Tears). She was literally dripping on the table for 20 minutes. 20 MINUTES! Over something no one will see unless you tell them to look carefully? Seriously?!

I would like to say I was sorry for what I had done, but I’m not. It was funny, it still is funny, and it is no big deal.