Computers R Cool

One of my classes can be a challenge. Its near the end of the day and most of the students are ninth graders. If you don’t  know what that this is like some day around 1:00 in the afternoon convince 24 people to drink three or four cups of coffee and and ask them to act like they know everything but really know nothing. Make sure these people are really horny and throw in a few overly aggressive males to get the full experience. Now try to keep them busy for 40 minutes. This would probably similar to my experience.

I’ve been trying to capture thier attention. Engagement is key and if the TV can keep them busy for hours at a time then I should be able to get them to watch me. Today I found something that really got them tuned in.
We’ve been learning about processes and I asked them to write a “How To Guide” on whatever thing they could think of. Someone cracked a joke about “How to use the bathroom” (in cruder terms). After I corrected his language I decided to run with it. I told them this was reasonable and I started talking about squat toilets I’ve seen with a bucket of water next to them and no toilet paper. How would they use the bathroom? When I told them the process of going to the bathroom in this sort of set up they started asking me questions. The fact they were asking me something other than “Why doesn’t this program work?” and “What am I supposed to do?” got me going and I kept the conversation running for a while. This wasn’t the good day though.

Today I opened class with a picture of a squat toilet I found on Google. They were quiet while they waited to hear what it was and how it worked. We even got into a discussion about how people might try to use a western style toilet if they had never seen one before. Then I told them what the assignment was, they were quiet, moved quickly to their computers and worked quietly for the rest of the period. I couldn’t believe it. Maybe there was something else going on that mellowed them out but if the secret to managing this class is showing them pictures of toilets from around the world then I will search for Albanian toilets tomorrow and I won’t stop until I get to Zaire.