Archive for December, 2008
Back in the 20th century, when I was in high school, I had this social studies teacher who would give away all the test answers the day before the test in a game called “Dingers.” We would line up in two groups and when it was your turn, you sat face to face with a classmate, game-show style, and in between you was one of those Dinger things that you ring for service. He would read out the question and whoever got their hand practically punctured by the other person’s hand slapping on top of yours slapping on top of the Dinger got to answer the question and earn points for the team. There was no delicate plucking of the bell, as pictured. Years later, I realized he wasn’t giving away the answers, he was teaching us how to study for the test. Curses! Tricked into learning again! So with full props to my 10th grade social studies teacher, here is the game, modified for the 21st Century.
1) Obtain a Staples “That Was Easy!” button. In today’s litigious world, one wants to avoid the “How did my son puncture his hand again?” conversation. The button is nice and soft, and has the added bonus of saying, “That Was Easy!” every time you push it.*
2) Line people up, Family Feud style, with half the class in a line and half the class in another. The two people in the front of the line sit down at a table, place their thumbs under the table and 4 fingers on the table to have an equal start.
3) Teacher reads out a question and whoever hits the “That Was Easy!” button gets to guess. If the person gets it right, they get 2 points: one point for getting it right, and one point for being correct that it was indeed “Easy.” If the person gets it wrong, the other team automatically gets 1 point because the other team misjudged the difficulty of the question.**
4) At this point, the other team can accept the 1 point and walk away, or choose to “steal” for an additional point by hitting the “Easy” button and getting it correct. If they get it wrong, they walk away with zero points.
5) Please expect a classroom full of students screaming, “It’s easy! It’s easy! Do it! Dude!” when there is a stealing opportunity. So if you are opposed to that, set up a ground rule in the beginning that teams lose points if someone yells out. I think the yelling out is kind of fun for them, but everyone has their own tolerance for noise.
6) Also, if you have a particularly aggressive student who you feel cannot handle the controlled slapping of button, put him/her in charge of keeping points on the whiteboard or reading the questions with you.
7) If your test questions are better in written form (say, like doing a math problem) then you can have two baby whiteboards and dry erase markers at the Dingers station and they can work out the problem on their individual boards, then hit the Easy button.
Try it out, and let me know if “That was Easy!”
*So annoying after a while. Kids of all ages love it though. Also, I do not endorse any particular office supply store. But if Staples wants to throw me a kick-back, feel free!
** This is in place so that our more impulsive friends (read: ADHD, those with Executive Functioning deficits) can evaluate the difficulty of task first, which is an important study skill. We’ve all seen the kid who rushes through something, thinking it’s easy, and does it all wrong. This is a good inhibition (“stop and think”) practice for test taking.
I’ve been following the saga of Mrs. Mimi, and her battle for basic needs in her school, such as a parking spot, in My Kingdom for a Parking Space. While hers takes the cake for wackness in education, I have to report that it’s pathetic that I can’t get a working printer in the public school on the cusp of 2009, especially when my job entails writing lengthy reports on whether or not kids have learning disabilities, Autism, ADHD, Emotional Disabilities, etc. etc. Not to toot my own horn, but I think it’s important for parents and schools to have a written copy of such things.
I wont go into boring detail, but on Tuesday, I almost lost it, in manner of the movie Office Space in which the guy freaks out because the printer keeps saying “PC Letter Load” and he ends up smashing the thing with a bat in a field after work. Since I have a nonviolent temperament, I will use an “I message” instead. *
Printer, I feel frustrated when things that should take 5 minutes, like printing a report, takes days because I have a laptop with no Internet or printer connector so I can’t print at school.** I feel sad that I have to drive 10 miles away to use the one printer that we have for the 40 psychologists. I feel angry when the printer wasn’t working, then it was, but then there was no white paper. I need A WORKING PRINTER.
The funny part of this story is that I used Twitter to voice my frustration, writing, “All I want for Christmas is a working printer in my school” and this morning, I received a notice that Riso Printers, Inc. was now following me on Twitter. Stay tuned, Riso.
*For those of you who don’t hang around the yoots, educators are big fans of the “I Message” in which you tell someone how you are feeling and what you need. Some of my little ones don’t quite get the concept yet, and say, “I hate you.” We’re working on it.
**Don’t say flashdrive. I forgot it that day.