Revelation

It's not extremely profound, but I think I realized how the students see me as I pace back and forth in front of the class, blathering on about supplementary angles, wildly flailing my arms around.  I've kind of lost touch with...well, reality and what the people reading this blog might be familiar with so if you know what I am talking about explain it to the person sitting next to you in the language you are most comfortable with.  There was a Saturday Night Live sketch with Chris Kattan where he plays a teacher shouting wild and inarticulate nonsense at his students like "Zeedle do with a bap bop and a widdle and a dee."  He then completely expects them to understand and gets a little frustrated when, to the audience and to them, they understandably don't have a clue and just give him a blank stare of confusion.  He then combines it with unreadable squiggly lines on the chalkboard.  That's me.  Many of the students in Form 1 are not very experienced with English yet and I am still trying to speak slower, but think I just end up speaking louder as I see some of the more timid students cowering in the corner covering their ears.  I am currently developing a new teaching strategy to help them overcome the fear of answering when I ask a question.  It will involve poking a student with a long stick while repeating a question over and over until she gives me the answer I'm looking for.  A big bright spotlight might help by kicking up the intimidation factor a bit...or maybe I'll just give more group exercises.  I did incorporate a broom handle that was in the class one day, but I mainly just used it for pointing and as a walking stick going from group to group.  They thought it was pretty funny...and so did I, and I didn't even poke anyone with it.  Well, one or two but they were asking for it.