Lessons & Classroom Games for Teachers
It's been 8 days that I have not had a taste of my dear old, old friend - the soda! I was telling my kids about it when suddenly, I was struck by inspiration. And I thought to myself, why not?
That day, I offered my class a deal. If every single one of my students were to complete a dare or a challenge within 21 days, I would give them either a pizza party or a movie.
They took it, and were even pretty excited about the whole idea.
It took us several days (15 minutes each time), before everyone thought of a challenge for himself/herself, or a dare for a classmate.
The challenges all had to do with school, of course, because we had to have a way to monitor things, and the whole idea is for them to be a means of support for the goals they want to achieve by the end of the year.
Here are a few of the challenges/dares:
"I will speak only English in all my classes."
"I will do all my homework in all subjects everyday."
And of course, as for myself, I should also have another challenge aside from my soda battle.
So my challenge would be to make sure I check all homework everyday, and give appropriate feedback (grades, comments or both) to students the following school day.
The rules:
The whole class has to participate.
Everyone is accountable to one another.
If one fails to do his/her challenge, there are two choices: he/she can treat the whole class to pizza or start another 21-days cycle.
Once everyone has completed one 21-days cycle successfully, I treat the class to a pizza party or to a movie of their choosing.
Why 21?
According to Stephen Covey, author of the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", it takes 21 days for somebody to make or break a habit. Thus, the 21-days cycle.
Stay tuned as I bring you news about how this will turn out. I'm so positive about its results I'm getting ready with that big pizza order.
Hedda Joy Tady-Tan is an international School Teacher in Thailand. She is also the Editor-In-Chief of SiamPinoy.com - The Filipino Expats Community in Thailand Online.
