Some Stories

I have neglected to tell good kid stories, mostly because I'm so tired all the time and partly because there haven't really been any amazing stories yet. But while I'm waiting for my clothes to dry I'll tell a few.

First of all, last week I got to teach Judaism and I loved it. I was basically teaching the Bible, complete with having the kids illustrate the first and second covenants (Abraham and Moses). Then, their documents (remember, that's all they do, read docs) were the Genesis excerpt on Abraham sacrificing Isaac and the Exodus excerpt of the Ten Commandments. It was great. I knew they would all mutiny if I just made them read both documents and fill in the worksheet. So, instead, I highlighted certain parts of the Genesis reading and had a "Judaism Theatre" instead. I picked 4 kids to play the parts of Abraham, God, Isaac and the ram. It was so great. Simple, but the kids loved it and it totally got the point across. I highlighted their scripts for them and then I read the narrations and they would read the words they were supposed to say. It was great, "and the Lord spoke" "Abraham! Abraham!" My favorite part was when Abraham and Isaac are walking to the place to sacrifice, and Isaac is like, "Dad...we have wood...but where's the sacrifice?" They get there and Abraham makes an alter, big deal. But then, the text says, "Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." EACH TIME the character who played Isaac would realize what was going on and their eyes would get really big!! Then, the ram would discover what their part was and their eyes would get big. It took just as much time as it would have taken for them to read it and me to explain but it was way more fun this way. The kids giggled all the way through.

Second, today my kids were so smart. My first period is usually sleepy, but today was absolutely awful. They walked in to a 90-minute period and they were just staring. I had to ask them questions a few times and I quickly realized that my lesson plan was going to bomb without discussion. I had broken up a Hindu story called the Ramayana (it has monkey kings in it!) into 5 moral dilemmas concerning the Hindu concept of dharma. I had intended to have each group summarize their section of the story, share the dilemma and discuss it but knew that they kids would just fall asleep. So, I explained to my first period what I had planned and identified to them that it wasn't going to work. I asked the students, "How can we change this to make it meaningful enough for you to stay awake?" One girl piped up right away, "Why don't you have us summarize and then they can present us with the dilemma. Then, instead of just discussing it we have to go to one side if we agree that the character was following dharma and the other side if we think they didn't follow dharma." I could have hugged her. I was so proud of her. The rest of the kids piped up, agreed that it would be fun and we did it. It took much longer than the other way, but it resulted in a very meaningful discussion, active participation from a class that has a hard time participating in the morning, and we had plenty of time in the end to do what we needed! What a great idea! I'm totally doing that next time!

Third, today was one of my favorite days in Gov. I have this Russian Privatization simulation that I got from another teacher and every time it's just awesome. I've done it 6 times and every time it works without fail. Part of the magic of this simulation is the placement of students. I think carefully as I'm handing out roles, trying to put the right people in the right places and, once again, it worked like a charm. The kids are members of a community in Russia in which the USSR has just collapsed and they have privatized the local mine by giving the workers all the shares. But, the equipment is old and the workers don't have any money to fix it. The mine will fail within a month unless they get money to fix the machinery. The workers are the only ones with shares, the mine managers don't own shares (but have the expertise to run the mine) and are worried about losing their jobs, the local government officials just want to make sure the mine doesn't fail, and the communists want to maintain control. THey also have all the money. No matter what, in the end either the communists end up with control because the workers have no choice or because its been routed to them through the managers or local government, or the workers refuse to sell to anyone and their mine fails. In the process there is bribery, shady dealings, stealing, traitors, good plans, and bad plans. I love it. The kids think they're being sneaky but actually they are just doing what happened in Russia.

Today I loved it because one of my students was mad that I made him a worker instead of a communist but I knew that he would do what I wanted him to in that role. He ended up sneaking some of his shares to the communists in return for a cushy government job at the end of the simulation and created chaos within his group. I knew that class would go crazy with it. Sure enough, they wanted to stay after class to finish it and we found out that 3 people chose to get ahead instead of work within the system (a very russian thing) and that the communist party had grown from 3 to 6 for just that reason. Also, the workers tried to bribe one of the managers into training them, but they gave her shares before the deal was done and she wouldn't give them back. Briberies going awry....well, that's true too. Anyway, I wish you could have seen the class. They were nuts...much arguing, lots of cogs turning in those brains, lots of laughing, and amazingly enough...lots of learning.

I love it when at the end of a 90 minute period they go, "Whoah! Class is already over?" If only every day I had a stellar simulation.

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