New course started yesterday, which has all the hopes and promises of being more fun than a barrel of monkeys. How do I know this?
Icebreakers.
I was anticipating having last term’s Proficient 4 students again, so my weekend was spent scouring the Internet for icebreakers and competitive activities to get everyone’s attitude about the new chapter nice and enthusiastic. I was expecting something small — four girls and poor Bassem — and lots of conversation. I even planned a few jokes about how their tests were awful (as I am currently in the process of grading them, and they are fantastic).
I did NOT, however, count on was that there would be about ten additional people there. Students I had never seen, met, or heard of before. I walked out of the classroom after putting my things down to get my requisite milk tea, only to return and find the little central room packed with hijabis. I practically had a heart attack.
Anyway.
Icebreakers were even more than helpful. What I originally intended to be an interesting way of secretively getting to know more about my original half-dozen girls turned into a genuinely dynamic activity — especially as I now have a couple of loudmouths in class (always a good thing). Here’s what we did:
1. Introductions. After remaining mysteriously silent for the first few minutes, I rearranged the room. People were naturally sitting next to their friends. I asked every other person if they knew the person to their right, and if they did, I moved them across the room. This, to start, was hilarious, if only because everyone got to laugh nervously with one another. Then, I put a number of questions on the board that I asked them to answer about the other person — and I gave them all of Eric Clapton’s “My Father’s Eyes” to prepare to introduce them to the class. These questions rated from the mundane (Name, place born, etc.) to the relatively clever (best molokhiyya you’ve ever ate, favorite dessert) to the philosophical (what is the most beautiful thing you can think of right now?). This time, I was smart and took notes, so I think I’ve already got names down pat. NB: Are these general tricks that all teachers learn?
2. Human knot. I then dashed the class into 1’s and 2’s and had them get into teams and explained “the human knot” to them. (For those of you that have never been to summer camp, that’s when you get in a shoulder-to-shoulder circle and hold hands with someone that is not next to you and have to untangle the ensuing “knot” of people. This exercise is great for getting people to give and take instructions in English, as well as its “funness”). Winners got chocolate.
For the boys, this was actually something of a problem. I had thought about the whole “touching” thing and thought that it wouldn’t be too much trouble (people shake hands, right?), but it proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for the gents. So, boys team! Worked just as well, and they had problems of their own to work out in the knot.
3. Two truths and a lie. More fun, obviously, if you’re a little tipsy, but works in this case quite well as a fast-track way of getting to know everyone. My forgot my own three statements, but I remember the counter argument to one: “You look like the kind of person that would jump off a train, sir.”
4. The last activity was of my own devising and was an amalgamation of a number of things I found on the internet. I had the students break into three groups of about five, and then agree on an answer to each of ten “blanks.” They could give me anything — especially if it was unusual — as long as they all agreed to it. The list included: a famous person, a place, a neighborhood, a weapon, three adjectives. Once they came up with it, I informed them that it was their happy task to then author a story based on the these responses. In retrospect, I should have had them switch lists and write each others’ stories, but the results were still hilarious.
Most of them wrote about Suzanne Tamim, who apparently is a Lebanese singer of recent notoriety, having been murdered on the docks of Dubai on the orders of her jealous husband when he found out she was two-timing him with another (gasp!) husband. I redirect you here for the full awesomeness of the story.
Last half-hour of the class we finally got around to the book, which incidentally was talking about books and reading. We had to cut class short, but damn: I really wished we could have kept going.
Nights like these are reasons why you love teaching.
Walk tall, kick ass. Learn to speak Arabic, love music, and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers and warriors. HST
