Creative Teaching in India – Cow Girls and a Banana Phone

Global Volunteer, Michelle, reports on creative ways to engage students in learning English when teaching in India.

After dropping Steve and Barbee at Assisi Illam, Jennifer and I headed back to Christ the King School for a second day with the 4th and 5th graders. We built on the animal teams and team slogans created on Monday by leading the kids into a competitive game of Pictionary. And what a competition it was!! The 5th graders were really into it, so much so that at times it felt like the room was ready to go off the rails! After a spirited game, a small team of smart “Cow” girls mopped the floor with everyone else, winning an impressive victory.

The 4th graders, once they warmed up and caught on, definitely finished with the same enthusiasm as the 5th graders. Michelle and Jen found a new phenomena even more intriguing though. They began to get “I don’t understand” head bobbles nonstop. The kids kept saying they didn’t know what words meant, not because they didn’t know the word but because they thought it was too hard to draw. Luckily, we caught on before they ran out of pictionary cards.

Steve teaching English in India to captivated (and captivating) students.

Over at Assisi Illam, Jen and Steve used a game to model phone conversations – and gave them a good laugh. Steve talked about how he told the kids they were going to practice talking on the phone by holding a banana up to their ear, which is what kids in the United States would do to simulate a real phone. After listening very intently to his instructions, Steve told the kids to pick up the phone and talk into it. “But it’s a banana”, one kid said, as if Steve didn’t know the difference!

Message for the Day: The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.– Saint Theresa of Calcutta