Let's Play

Teaching English involves playing games. I use hangman, tic-tac-toe, I spy, bingo and so on. Playing games make the students more active in class and they would also enjoy the lesson more. My students love these games, especially the sweets they get so they participate actively.

Their favourite game? Hide and seek. Specifically, they hide anything I own and I seek. Yesterday I realised that my permission tag was missing towards the end of the lesson. So I asked the kids to return them but they just hid their hands in their pockets and whistled.

S: Si XXX tu cher menapuk!

And he quickly ran out of the class. Since the kids had the whole floor to themselves, that meant I had to search every single room.

However after being tricked so many times, I knew well enough that he was hiding next door, behind the door.

Sure enough I found him. He had thought that sucking in his guts while hiding behind the door was a guaranteed good hiding strategy but like I said, this trick is getting waaaaaay too old.

T: Bagi balik!

Sheepishly he handed back the tag.

Tired of this trick, I sighed and asked him sarcastically, "Berapa umur mu kan?" I hoped that he understood that he was too old to play kids' tricks. So I was very happy when he looked down and said in a guilty tone, "16, cigu."

"Alhamdullilah. He has realised that he's acting childish!"

But of course, in my situation, that's wishful thinking.

He did this



and laughed an evil laugh all the way back to the classroom. Well, it was worth a shot wasn't it?