Frisbees and Evolution

Since I'm sure you're all on tenterhooks, I'll tell you that Dawson's screen is still broken but I can plug him into either the projector or just any old monitor and still use him.  So my continuous assessment marks have been saved! Plus all the really important stuff like My Little Pony and Left 4 Dead.

One week tomorrow the lucky kids will start their exams and in one month and eleven days I'll be flying out of Paro which the kids might also see as lucky.  Sadly, T'eo won't be able to meet me at the airport but Mom and Dad will be there so I guess they'll have to do.

Yesterday, (or the 9/11/13 in case I don't post this today) we had our school picnic down by the Pochu river.  Due to a slight misunderstanding, I arrived two hours earlier than any other teacher because I didn't realise that the principal was only talking to the students when he said to arrive at the picnic site at 8 o'clock.  But that was ok because I had brought a couple of frisbees, my ipod and its portable player so to the music of Queen and They Might Be Giants amongst others (Teo Torriatte and Love of My Life were the most popular), I taught the kids how to play catch with frisbees.  Sadly, by the end of the day both frisbees had suffered compound fractures and I had to reassure some students who looked like they had broken a Faberge egg  that it was alright and nothing from a 2 dollar shop ever lasted as long as they did.

I think Bohemian Rhapsody was playing when I took this one.  The frisbees are a bit hard to see but the are the blue things.

Technically there weren't meant to be any lessons yesterday but some of my students were puzzled by some “philosophical” questions which apparently had no answer and asked for my help.  Unfortunately for any philosophers who demand an absence of solid facts, both questions did have answers.  The first was the good old chicken and egg question so the kids go a very quick lesson on evolution and how egg-laying reptiles eventually became chickens.  I couldn't give such a good answer for the second one which was about which were first, men or women.  Well, the exact words were 'males' and 'females' so I'm not sure if the question was specifically about humans or if it included the entire animal kingdom.  I don't know enough about evolution to know when life got complex enough to have the different sexes so instead I went with an answer that the boys didn't like very much but the girls did.  I told them that there were girls first because everyone started out as a girl.  I didn't say that boys were therefore broken girls but there was a very brief lesson on chromosomes.  Colin probably would have given a much better explanation but they were stuck with me.

We also had a visit from one of T'eo's subjects.  A very excited class 4 student brought over the little reptile and I had to be quite firm with the other students to keep them from petting it.

As you can see, the little dragon was just thrilled to join the picnic.

I was very glad that the students' fear of tiny lizards was disappearing but the lizard's fear of the students was probably quite strong and I didn't want it justified.  This meant that nobody was allowed to pet the little guy but I did let the boy who found it have it on his shoulder.

That really tiny grey streak on his shoulder is actually a dragon.

The afternoon turned into one long photo session after one group of kids asked if they could have their picture with me and then other kids came and some kids wanted a picture of just me and them and so on.

I think some were taking the occasion slightly more seriously than others.  I must try harder to spread the insanity to all next year.

And here's one where some chose to display their gang affiliation.

I'm hoping my colleagues who are not returning were ok at their picnics.  I would have been a weepy mess if I weren't coming back next year!

I leave you with a photo that I should have put with my previous blog post but forgot to.

It's Adam helping Dad focus the picture!

Hugs to All and wish my students luck for their exams.  I'm afraid some of them may need it!

Hugs hugs