My China Experience 12

China Trip 5

It was one of those days….. I was trying to get ready for the coming week of classes. I use the Internet a lot to find ideas to use in class to help the students not just speak in English, but to “think” in English too. I want the classes to be as fun as possible. If I can make it fun, they listen more and try harder. I was lining up some classes that seemed to be just OK. The last two classes I had to get some grades on them all so the classes were very boring, just basic reading and questions on what they read. I clicked on one last link before stopping for the evening and …..WOW !!!!! This was my next class for sure. It just popped for me. Seems so simple, but I had a big feeling it was good. This was a simple crossword puzzle. I know, you are all saying, “a crossword puzzle? How lame.” I just had a feeling that it would be good so I tried it. This web site let me make a crossword puzzle with my words and clues….whatever I wanted. I chose words that I was sure they all knew, either from my class or from their daily life. All but two were in English. Remember, this IS an English class. On and on, I built my puzzle. Made the clues, not impossible, but just slightly difficult, just enough to make them think. Chinese students are usually taught to memorize and just “do as I say”. I don’t like that. I want them to “think” too. I want them to question me if they do not understand something. I finished the puzzle but it was late. The office where I get to make free copies on campus was closed hours ago and I had class at 8AM. I just had to make the copies at home myself and just eat the expense. The next day I had two classes of post grads, about 100 students. Hmmmm….. one page for the puzzle and one for the clues, that’s a lot. If I had them in groups of 4 or 5 it was much better. Less copies and working together, sharing, thinking together, as a team. That was IT. TEAMWORK. Four to a team, 100 students, I needed about 25 copies of a 2 pager, 50 pages total. Not too bad, and a few extra to be sure. I had my printers humming. My cheap, no good @#$%^& stapler was not helping. I had to waste at least 3-4 staples for everyone that actually worked. I just HAVE to get a new stapler today.
I arrived at class my usual 20-30 minutes early. I was a little excited. These post grads are not at all easy to get going. They are older, more life experiences, some had families-spouses-kids-etc. after roll call I asked about crossword puzzles. None knew what they were. I showed them one as I tried to explain. Some things we take for granted are very difficult to explain to someone for the first time. After a few minutes a few got the idea. I had them do what I hate, but had them explain to the others in Chinese. Now they all knew. I split them up in teams of four each. I had them move to be all very close to their team members. I handed out the puzzles and said “GO”. Nothing happened. They all just sat there. I asked one why they all just sat there, and she said that I told them to “go” but they did not know where to go. That was my error. Now I told them to “begin”, and it was much better. They looked and looked but no excitement. I told them to look at the clue for #2 across. The clue read “singing in my dorm”. I asked them, what do you need to sing in your dorm? Most stared at me unknowing. I said that the first answer was my gift to them, a freebee. It was a three letter word they needed. To sing in your dorm you need…….an “MP3”. There was about a ten second pause then they clicked. They knew what I meant. I told them #3 down started with the letter “P” from the word MP3. they started to talk, then smile, then standing up showing some enthusiasm. There were a few questions on some of the clues, and I explained to everyone so as to be fair. It was going well. They were laughing. As I walked around the class listening to their teamwork, I heard talking in English, ideas in English, discussions on the clues in English, them trying to figure out how an American would think to make these clues…IN ENGLISH. I was very happy. They were happy too. It was not as easy as I thought. As I walked around looking at their puzzles, if I saw a wrong answer I would tell them. I heard them say to each other, “see, I told you it was this, not that.” They were working and thinking as a team. I loved it. I was excited too. Break time came between the first and second half of the class. I told them but no one moved. I thought they did not hear me so I repeated it was break time. Some students looked at me and asked if they “had” to take a break? They would rather stay and work the puzzle. I told them it was up to them. One or two went to the toilet, but returned very quickly to work the puzzle.
About 15 minutes before the end of the second half of the class, I stopped them all and told them we would go over the answers together now. They all sat and stared at me intently. I had 100% of their attention. I was getting a great feeling from all this. I started, #2 across I gave you that. Singing in the dorm, it was MP3. I said #3 down, it started with the letter “P”, showing you my world. We did this in our first class. How did I show you my world? Several students said “photography” aloud. I yelled YES. Did anyone see my shirt? I was wearing my “Joseph Barbarise “Photography” shirt to class today as a clue. Many laughed. #22 down, “famous foreign drink”. I walked down among the students. They said “coffee”, and I yelled YES and pointed at the first I heard with the right answer. I saw a few students of other classes peeking in my front door to see what the excitement was. #20 down I said….”nothing is ----------“. They yelled “impossible”, I yelled louder…YES. It’s what I’ve been telling you for 13 weeks…you can do anything. I was talking much louder now. I said, you can be a business man, a teacher, a translator…whatever you choose. Just work hard, keep dreaming and never give up. I was very worked up. I felt like a televangelist, like Jimmy Swaggert. I asked the next number and many students yelled the answer. I was close to the first one and yelled RIGHT as I pointed at her. Now I saw about 4 students looking in my front door, three at the back door and two looking in the hall window. They were thinking “who is this crazy foreigner”? It got louder and louder. They were all telling the answers in unison now. Four students from other classes got up their nerve now and just walked in and sat down. This was FUN and they wanted in on this. I kept on asking the answers as I walked up to the new students, and escorted them out of my class. My real students all laughed at this. Crowds gathered at my two doors. This was like sharks at a feeding frenzy. We were feeding off each other’s excitement. I walked all around in the class as we went down the list. Getting close to the end, I was sweating…a lot. I could no longer keep the other students out. They came in both doors. They filled the seats. They kept coming, they were standing all over the class room. I swear I must have sounded like a crazy person. I have never felt so high on adrenalin, on the excitement. After the answer to the last clue, I just plopped down on the nearest seat to me, and said “class dismissed”. I was totally spent. If it was possible, I would have slept right there in the class room. The students came past me all smiling, many took my hand and said thank you. I got a lump in my throat so big that I could not swallow or speak. I just sat there until they all left, then I stood and slowly packed up and left.
As I left the building a few were still standing nearby talking about the class. They all smiled and waved as I walked back to my apartment. I needed rest. I think this was my best class yet. I really love this place.

Time for a new link. http://my-china13.blogspot.com/ Come see my latest adventure for Christmas. Ho-Ho-Ho....see you there.