So when I lived in the states I was doing ministry with youth. That hasn't changed too much since I've gotten down here. My ministry activities have changed but I haven't quit doing the lords work. So I've played some soccer I've played some arena soccer and I've driven kids to soccer. I've done a lot of activities with soccer but today I was able to do something new that reminded me off home. We played "birdy on a perch" with my second year English class.The reason we played this game with this group of kids is because they are the class that is really working hard. Their work ethic has been the most consistent compared to the 3rd. or 1st. classes. This is a constant topic at the Wood's lunch table, how to get kids to do their homework. I've had 40 %, 50%, and even 60% of a class not do their homework. That is extremely frustrating for a teacher. Because then we have to hold 10 to 18 kids in the biblicoteca (Library) at lunch. Talk about frustrating especially when we have to hold them for 15 minutes and in half that time almost everyone has been able to complete their homework. It's very frustrating. 3rd year drives us crazy because they know most of the material but refuse to work. 1st year is just learning how to work hard and some of them fighting it tooth and nail (lazy lazy lazy drives me crazy crazy crazy).
2nd. year isn't perfect either and they've had day's we've had to kick their butts back into gear. Luckily they still seem to be grasping the material and doing well on tests. Just last week we gave a three page written exam, and then couple days later we gave an oral exam. The chapter exam was difficult and most of the kids really exceeded our expectations which is great, they're working hard. Then this last Monday we told them that they would have their oral and some of their faces went ghost white. I thought I was in American when I saw their faces. But we spent 2 days prepping the kids and then I started the exam. It was amazing I really expected some of the kids to stumble and choke up. It's much easier to write the words on a page then speak them to a native speaker. At least that is how I feel when I talked on the farm at home. By the end we had 8 10's - 8 9's and - 4 8's and 2 7's. Not one person failed the exam.They've worked hard and now it was time to play. So today we took them out on to the basketball/soccer court and played "birdy on a perch". The guys really loved it because we only have 8 guys in the class and 12 girls in the class. For those of you who have never been involved with younglife or any of my High School Group games you probably don't know this game. I'll teach you the game in the same way I taught these kids. I got all the guys to go to one knee in the middle of the basketball court. It took a little explaining but they finally figured out that they needed to face outward toward the girls. The girls then walk around the boys while Mrs. Wood or I banged away at a drum. Then the drumming would stop and the girls would have to find a seat. It's like a game of musical chairs but more fun, I think. It's really fun for the guys because they are now the chair and the girls also have fun wrestling over who gets to sit on who's lap. We played three games and everybody had a great time, then we played a version of tag involving as much English as possible. We want them to learn a little bit right.
Up above is a picture of my second year English class which I love. The guy in the center is the principle. The picture below is me trying to get in my own picture. (I'm the orange shirt in the top right) I guess that is what I get for hanging out with a bunch of 8th graders at the end of the day. It was a little crazy.
I'll try to keep you as update as possible on how things are going and it's great to been hearing from you guys. God BlessScott Ekstrom
2 comments:
Love seeing the photos. Glad to hear your students tested well. Maybe you should be a teacher. The game sounded fun. Love mom
You can thank Dan and Younglife for teaching that game to me.
Scott
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