Teaching Verbs-An Anecdote from the Frontlines

"I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the 
conditions in which they can learn."
-Albert Einstein

I don’t know if any of you have had the opportunity to teach children at any point in your lives, but it’s not easy. They’re little, and squirmy; according to them they have to go to the bathroom ever 9.5 minutes, and nothing seems to stick in their heads. Nothing!

Such was my predicament on Tuesday. Two weeks of trying to learn verbs in the present tense, and yet when I ask what the word ‘drink’ means, crickets. I thought to myself, no matter, I’m going to make them learn.

“Everybody outside!” I said. “We’re going to play a game.”

Immediately their interest was piqued. I heard a murmur go around the room as they got up. “A game? We’re going to play a game? Outside?” I heard Lucas tell one of the other boys, “I bet its going to be another boring English game.”

Well, seeing as how it was English class, it was in fact another English game, but not a boring one. As a group, we put our English skills to work. When I said the verb, they had to do it. Eat? Mimic eating. Jump? Start hopping. Run? Everyone around the basketball courts!

Ten minutes later, everyone was smiling and jumping and doing their English verbs, and they said, “Alisha, play with us!”

Why not, I thought to myself, and shouted “Run!” as I took off running.

 The past few days we've been experiencing a bit of wet weather, and the basketball court was drenched. Never the less, the kids had been running around, and so of course I would, too. But on the way second lap, disaster struck.

Being the overly competitive person I was, I was trying to beat a bunch of third graders by a mile. I started going to fast, and splat! My foot slipped and I went grinding into the cement, landing perfectly in a puddle.

I think it goes without saying that my class laughed at me. I ripped my jeans, scraped my elbow and bruised my pride. But they also learned their English verbs, judging be their test scores, so who am I to complain?

Those are my high-scoring tests: 10s all the way!