Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Students Say...

My middle-level sophomore class made my day today. It's a class full of boys and they've been pretty quiet all semester, but now that we're on the downward slope of the semseter, they've warmed up to me and class is getting more and more fun!

Today, we talked about shopping and budgets. I had them each come up with one big item that they needed to shop for: a camera, a new phone, a car, a backpack, whatever. 

"Ok guys, now think of something you need, not just the example on the page. What are YOU looking for? Write it down. Ok now split up with your partner and take turns being the store clerk and the shopper. Ready? Go." 

One of the role play conversations went like this: 

Student A: "Hello, may I help you?"
Student B: "Yes, I am looking for... a girlfriend." 

There's a store for that?? What have I been missing?? 

...

They needed to compare two models of whatever they wanted to buy, using comparative adjectives and such, so we compared the Galaxy S4 to the iPhone 5 as a class. It was fun to see them get so animated while arguing about different qualities! 

"iPhone is easier to use" "No, Galaxy is easier!" "iPhone is lighter than Galaxy." "No it isn't! Look..." *takes out phone, hands it to a student with a Galaxy* *student pretends it weighs 5 kg or something ridiculous* "Ugh! So heavy! Mine is not heavy. See?" *hands them both to me* 

...

One of the boys was "shopping" for a new car. He started to talk about a Kia Pride being a classic car and I was all like "WHAT??? That's what I drive!!" And he was like "Oh really? Very good car. Sexy. Classic." "Ummm... we must not be talking about the same car." *shows him a picture of my poor Sarabi* "Yes! Very nice. I like this car." He googled pictures of a nice Kia Pride that is still in good shape and his opinion made more sense. I told him I'd sell him mine after finals and he joked back that mine was broken so mayyyyybe he doesn't want it. "Zara, your car... I buy... then it breaks and I pay more money... five dollar, ten dollar, one hundred dollars." EXACTLY. But still. One of my students thinks my car's sexy! No one's ever said that about Sarabi before. Yesssss! 

...

It was a fun class, which I didn't really expect today! I mean, we ended the lesson by talking about budgets. That's not exactly LOL material (and I kinda felt like a fraud teaching about budgets, but it's an important part of adulthood!) It's always nice when students will joke around with you. It seems like I haven't gotten that as much this semester as I did last semester, but maybe that's changing now that midterms are over and we've gotten to know each other more. The chemistry in every group is different, so I just figured my students this term weren't as goofy or relaxed as they were last time. I'm really relieved to see that that might not be the case. 

At any rate, we're on the downhill slide toward Christmas! CHEERS! 

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