Mr. Marc's Scrapbook
The Brit-centric textbook I used to teach my fourth grade students began with a brief lesson on discussing television. I had six weeks of classes to fill with this scintillating topic. Once the kids tired of saying, "I like quiz programmes," we moved into the art projects. In teams they built televisions out of old boxes. Three of my finest students are shown here playing with a model TV. "I like fish programmes." Pictured: Thee, Petch, Porche
The yellow team decorating the outside of their TV. Pictured: Perth and Gucci
The red team working busily. Ice is in the background. Nat is working on the remote control.
Porche modeling a TV body. Thee is in the background to the left, tuning in transmissions from beyond the stars.
Thee is a remarkable young man. During our second unit, focusing on holidays, dates and British festivals like Guy Fawkes' Night, we made birthday cards. My model card featured a rocket theme which many of the students imitated, adding aliens and cartoon characters to their intergalactic scenes. Thee followed suit, putting a scale drawing of the entire solar system on the front of his card, with the various planetary orbits clearly marked. Refusing to be thematically pigeonholed however, he chose a French theme for the inside of the card.
The greeting featured an illustration of Napoleon and the intriguing message, 'You're in the Battle of Trafalgar, Happy Birthday.' Many of Thee's classmates can spell D-O-G. To make the above image scan better, I have removed the pop-up French flag. Opposite the greeting, where more personal messages might be appropriate, Thee did an illustration of the storming of the Bastille. When we did Halloween masks most of the students chose the cartoon cat Doramon or other pop culture icons: Power Rangers, Ultraman, zombies. Thee made a mask of the James the First who he explained was the King of Great Britain when the Pilgrims went to America. Thee reads books and remembers every word he sees.
Unidentified student wearing an unidentified mask.
At the end of the festivals unit, the fourth grade made a huge mural of the months, featuring posters, pictures and flash cards of the various holidays. This past year, the Chinese New Year fell in February.
(most of) the whole amazing fourth grade gang
Most of my classes were mathayom 2's like the section pictured above (2-5 D). They are the same age as American eighth graders, though more respectful and polite, despite their fierce poses.
This is 2-1 A, a bright and feisty bunch. Tam, the young fellow in the center flashing the peace sign, is a talented cartoonist who produced the following panels about his character Yo-Yo Man.
Yo-Yo Man desperately wants to destroy the monster that killed his girlfriend.
The Monster, a carnivorous dinosaur-looking thing, is too powerful so Yo-Yo Man befriends Luke Skywalker who instructs our hero in the ways of the Jedi.
Once a Jedi, Yo-yo man changes his name to Masterman and stalks off to face the Monster.
After dismembering the monster, Yo-Yo Man is celebrated as the best hero in the galaxy.
Eighth graders playing the "Go-home" game. Designed to be impossible to win, the "Go-home" game was considerably more popular than my grammar lectures. (?) cards featured questions the students would ask each other. (!) cards were instructions, generally something akin to "GO HOME!" Some of the kids actually preferred being sent home and would try to land on the (!) spaces to avoid speaking English.