Ultimate Solution (Written 10/24/06)

This is an update to let you know how my game went with the students. Overall, I would have to say it was a great success – the students really got into it and made it competitive. I think it was probably more of a success for the Year 13 students compared to the Year 12 students since Y13 was competing for a prize. Since Final Exam marks don't have the same impact here as they do in the states there's really not that much need to compete in terms of that score, but the Year 12 students did have fun AND they should now be over their fear that this test is hard…hopefully.

 

So, here's how it went for the Year 13 students. During the first day of competition, the scores were pretty much neck and neck, heck – the 'weaker' of my two year 13 classes outperformed the 'stronger' class which really made me proud of them and helped demonstrate to them that they are smart regardless of the 'class' you're put into. But something happened on the thirda day which tipped the balance in favor of one team so much that no other team could compete with them. In my 13b class, Team 1 decided not to answer a whole series of questions. I tried to prod them into answering, but they didn't get it going until the very end which by that point Team 2 was so far ahead it wasn't even funny – the scores for that day: Team 1 (8) / Team 2 (29). It totally threw the game out of whack but there was nothing I could do about it. Fortunately, the competition was at least a little bit more sensible in my 13c class and they stayed pretty evenly matched up until the final day. In the end, though, the monster points day by Team 2 allowed them to take the lead and keep it for the rest of the competition. Maybe next year I'll come up with some kind of points cap or something so this doesn't happen again – but from the standpoint of them learning/relearning the material and not being bored to tears, this little game was an unequivocal success.

 

So when will they get their prizes? I won't be in school tomorrow (Wednesday) because I'm going to the training village for Group 77 to do a session with them, and I'll be back on Thursday – where 2 people from Group 77 will be doing a little classroom observation, so we'll see how I'm able to incorporate them into that day. Odds are I'll announce the prizes on Thursday, but they won't actually get the prizes until next Thursday (which is the 'last' day of school before national exams). So there you go, just a small update to let you know how it went – L8r!