completely unexpected

*originally written 12/06/2010. revised and completed, today.*

as a teacher, i try to come up with new ways to illuminate the same subject. there's nothing worse than a stale activity to disengage students from wanting to learn more. for as long as i can remember, i've loved words. i am what you would call a logophile. in this final month of teaching, i wanted to emphasize more of the fun aspect and less of the burdensome of learning and using vocabulary words. to demonstrate the fun, i created a quiz game like atmosphere by having teams of two work together to see which duo can accurately state the most vocabulary words in one minute.

to add to the suspense, the teams were also chosen randomly and with everyone's cell phones' timers set to 60 seconds, my students were transformed from vocabulary dissidents to word nerd competitors. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

i knew the activity would be engaging, but i was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was spot on, on other levels. 1) my students were motivated to remember the words more solidly. 2) they were reviewing the words as they were in game mode. 3) they themselves knew whether they had studied well enough or not. in sum: accountability and responsibility.

the activity also brought about some unexpected emotions. after the game, i had my students play another game--a test, in fact!--with higher stakes. using the same vocabulary cards, i held them in my hand like a deck of cards. each student had to choose a vocabulary word and state the definition. if it was correct, (for the first word) they received 100%. if they got the second word correct, they received 90%, so on and so forth. in my second saturday class, only one student, brian received a 90%. now, let me tell you, brian is not a dumb kid. he's incredibly fluent and funny, but to be honest, he is a bit of a slacker. he's one of those kids that doesn't apply himself to the best of his ability but is confident regardless.

after he received his 90%, he begged me to try again, to try for a 100%. i refused, stating that rules are rules and once you waver for one person, impartiality is jeopardized. truthfully, his average vocabulary score is usually in the 80's so, knowing this, i thought that he would be pleased with a 90%! to my astonishment, he took this very seriously. maybe a bit TOO seriously and he began to cry. WHOA. I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING FROM A MILE AWAY...and neither did any of the other students. we were all puzzled and stunned to see the class clown, break down, unashamedly in front of everyone.

to alleviate his stress, i took him outside the classroom (i instructed the other students to continue studying their vocabulary words) and into a smaller consultation room so we could talk it out. he told me in between deep breaths that he felt really embarrassed and ashamed that he was the only student in the class that didn't get 100%. i reassured him that while i understood wanting to be like everyone else, he still received a good score and that even though vocabulary scores are important, they're not as important as actually knowing and using the words correctly, which he did during the activity. i also told him that luck is not always in our favor and that in unlucky times, what we can do is remember that instances like these are not nearly as important as they seem. after a few more deep breaths, he calmed down and class resumed without any more calamities.

i learned a couple of valuable lessons that day. i realized my own prejudice with a student who i didn't think would demonstrate such visceral emotions and then, once he did, was really touched that he felt that comfortable and safe in our classroom to expose his vulnerabilities. perhaps, i am reading too much into the situation, but, it made me realize yet again, how much we expect the same thing from each other on a daily basis and how that sense of expectancy is so limiting and completely unrealistic. it is good to challenge our own ideas of who people are and then, be surprised by the depths and capabilities to feel and understand.