Enjoy your New Year
This past week I had a very rowdy group of third graders. Then I realized something. They are human too. Sure they are ten years old and explosive but inside they feel fear and joy and worry and doubt and trouble just like anyone else.
I ended the last day of our English camp with the assignment to write Good bye 2001 and hello 2022. I made it very simple to write one thing they did in 2021 and one thing they would like to do in 2022 and draw a picture of their dream 2022. Surprisingly many of these kids told me they wanted money and bitcoin. One kid said he bought a pile of dogecoin and was waiting for it to go to the moon. Finally after a week we had some kind of connection. Korean kids love crypto. For many it is faux pas to talk about crypto but these kids brought it up.
What would you tell a ten year that was sitting on a bag of doge coin? I could have said something about coin distribution but I'm not offering financial advice. I just said, " Don't you want to play?" This kids have enough anxiety already with their studies. I have only been with them for five classes but I thought they would knwo each other's names by now. I moved all the desks away and made some room to sit down. Somehow when Korean kids sit on the floor they open up and become really well behaved. We had played the name game three times and I had mentioned there names in class every day, but they told me they didn't know each other's names. They didn't care. Every time I turned my back I heard someone shout out... "___ ____ is bothering me!" They had no basic trust for each other and they were just piles of anxiety.
I asked the kids some other questions. I asked them how many go to private academies after school. Eleven out of thirteen raised their hands. I asked them how many go to professional sports academies or music lessons and again the same kids raised their hands. Their parents send them to these academies to learn and some of them know huge vocabulary words but can speak a very simple sentence. Instead of catching something they end up just competitive learning machines. They can't deal with a little freedom. It used to be that kids knew how to play. I could just say, "It's play time" and they knew what to do. But this time I had to teach them not only the rules of the game, but how to play with each other.
The lost a lot more than basic skills during social distancing. The kids lost basic trust and basic etiquette. They forgot how to play. I don't think it is too late. Next week I have two classes of 4th and 5th grade students. It's not going to be easy to juggle social distancing and play but I'm set on it. It's a five day special class. I think the best thing I can do is start out very strict the first day but allow the students to think about why they are there and how we should act toward each other.
We ended a week of English class with some games that did include touch. The kids like banana freeze tag the best. The students went home sweating and happy. I think they might forget what happened over the past week and they will definitely forget what I taught them but they will never forget the feeling of interacting with their friends and playing together. They kept their masks on while they played but still I hope that none of them did carry covid.
Play together, Stay together
For my own kids I bout a lazer tag set. This is something they can do at home. We live in a large building that is empty most of the week so the kids take advantage o the empty space and play capture the flag. Lazer tag makes the most annoying sounds but it is good to see them running around and playing with each other. Since we bought the lazer tag for Christmas the kids have stopped quarreling about silly things and they get along better. They solve their difference in the lazer tag game.
