One of the challenges with having 40 or more students in your class is trying get them all to speak. The students recognize that the odds are in their favour, primarily because they know that they can probably get away with speaking next to nothing, after all, English speaking class is a breeze, right? Not in my class, for sure. If I catch the kids napping, they have to practice speaking english, at their seat, or if its a repeat offense, at the front. And all you need to do is make one example, and the rest of them are cured. The students know that as long as they avoid eye contact, they are usually safe. The problem was volunteers. Already a tricky enough problem for them to understand...."Why would I want to be centered out...?", I used my only ace up my sleeve when I asked the students: "Who likes pizza?" and then grabbed the first lucky child to raise their hand. Now the kids have stage fright (I don't know why....) and finding volunteers has been a struggle. It only took one child per class to "point" out who they thought would be a good volunteer for me to have ONE lucky contestant, but I always need to. So, in a country where they cry for you to NOT ask them a question, I invented this little card. Mock all you want for using a prior card about Karl Rowe, this little buddy of mine is working like a charm. The kids who "volunteer" get one of these cards, and then, anytime in the future they don't feel like talking when their "number" gets called, they only have to pull this little card out, and they're free, until the next time. The joy with this is that with students memory being what it is, right now, they're fighting over something so simple as a piece of paper; a piece of paper that is going to be ripped, torn, or, heaven forbid, "gasp" - lost. Ahh, the joys of preying on the students minds....good thing they can't see that far ahead to know how "useless" this will be....
I love teaching....