Lesson 23

If you do more arts and crafts, the "A.D.D." children will "magically" be able to focus.

There are maybe three or four kids in my afternoon and math/science class combined that would most likely be classified as A.D.D. if they went to school in the States. As I said yesterday, I felt as though my lessons weren't working and that my kids weren't retaining information as well as they should. Today I decided to can the two-week plan and did less writing and more games and arts and crafts. It's the best idea I've had all week.


My science class learned about the brain and the nervous system today. When I first saw that I was supposed to teach this unit I hadn't the slightest idea as to what I should do. I mean, I'm teaching basic neuroscience to seven-year-olds who speak conversational English. I knew I would have to read the Easy Reader book to them, but I wanted to figure out some sort of game so that they could play and learn. I already wanted to do a memory game (10 items in a box and see how many items the kids could remember after looking for only 20 seconds), and a "What Am I" game (which part of the brain - cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem - is responsible for which things), but I wanted to do something else too. I remembered the Stroop test:

Ever heard of it? I'm sure you've received a few forwards from relatives about this. You're supposed to say the color of the ink independently of the word. (Try it - it's a lot more tough than you'd think.) My kids had a BLAST with this exercise. Two other teachers were skeptical and thought it was a dumb idea, so I'm even more excited that it was a hit.

I made Stroop test flashcards and told they kids they had two seconds to tell me the color of the ink. Some kids were really good and did it almost perfectly, but others had more trouble saying the color of the ink and the word. I also tried flipping the flashcards upside down and we found that everyone was able to complete the exercise perfectly this way. The class concluded that this was because it was more difficult to read the word upside-down, so your brain automatically said the color. The "problem" kids were actually the best at this exercise and were able to focus for the rest of the class with only one or two reminders to stay on task (as opposed to five or ten).

I also made pandas out of toilet paper rolls with my morning class (which they got a kick out of) even though they complained that the panda had whiskers and looked like a cat:

Even if it looked like a panda-cat, they liked it and that's what matters. Success! Screw the curriculum! Viva la educación!

UPDATE:

I forgot to add a few photos of what happens when you let kids have fun with markers and a white board.

This is what happens when you turn your back for 30 seconds.

Ethan continues to vandalize today's lesson.

Proud of his handiwork.