Putting the fun back into the class...

This was two days ago....one of those days when I do something out of my normal routine in class. Because there is so much emphasis on the passing percentage, I would usually get down to work... i.e. make sure the students do as many exercises as possible. Very much like the Chinese school mentality, I might add. Given the kind grasp my students have of the language, I always feel that they must be pumped with as many exercises as possible. *but most of the time it's an effort of futility*

On Wednesday, I opted not to give them the extra work, partly because I had just been irritated by something. Instead I asked the students what they'd like to do. Mind you, these are F1 kids. A couple of boys shouted quiz. The Malay girls are always reticent, timid... more subservient. I agreed to their request. Since the boys were more vocal, I started by asking questions about football... English Premiere League, Spanish League.... I was once upon a time mad enough about football to stay up late and watch. My favourite team was Tottenham Hotspurs... they had Glenn Hoddle then!! My idol! Don't know whether it was his looks or his skills! Ha! Ha!.... that was the time of Kevin Keegan, Maradona, Platini, Dunga, Bebeto... cannot remember the rest liao!

Anyway, from football we moved to culture, politics, geography and even the Bermuda Triangle. And in the whole process, we had so much laughs and fun. Two of the boys even laughed so much that they had tears in their eyes. I told them we can get a bucket to collect their tears and that made them even more hysterical! LOL! Everyone had a good laugh out of it. But they were such good sports. I was able to talk to them about cultural and religious tolerance... of planes and vessels going missing in the Bermuda Triangle, of the theories behind their disappearances... of Benazir Bhutto and suicide bombers, of Barack Obama and Lee Hsien Loong... We travelled the world in that 40 minutes....

Could see that it was really fun for them. The class was lively even though it was past 2.30 p.m. And even as 2.50 came, none were too eager to leave which surprised me somewhat. But I chased them out of the Language Room... and as they filed out in twos and threes, a few of them kept telling me... "Teacher, we do this again, can or not?", "Today very syiok-lah!', "Teacher, "Bestlah, hari ini".

Fun in learning... I was reminded of it on Wednesday.... I've always tried to make sure my own kids enjoy learning but in my chase to make sure my students learn...I push them hard, throwing out the fun element. I think many of us do. Sometimes we kill the kids' interest before they even have a chance to take root... and this system of ours has a great deal to do with it. 8(