Pages

Friday, August 13, 2010

A teaching idea...

Many of my students forget to bring pencils with them to class--somehow I'm not sure what they do in other classes throughout the day. They often ask me if they can borrow a pencil, and out of the kindness of my heart, I loan them one.

"Make sure you give it back to me at the end of class," knowing the chances of that happening are slim, especially for the younger students. (The pencils I loan them are ones that I find on the floor! Ha!)

Tonight I was at the county fair and picked up about 15 freebie pencils to take to Ukraine. I'll loan these to my students -- BUT with a condition!

The condition is that they have to provide collateral to make sure I get the pencil back. The collateral I have in mind? One of their SHOES (which may need to be placed far from students' desks if rather smelly). Or, if they would like to keep the pencil, I'll charge them for it! Ha! I haven't set the rate yet, but at minimum it will be 2 грн (25c). I'll have to make it high enough that they won't want to fork over the money.

If the students won't come prepared for class, then I might just profit off them! (The money would be used for buying MORE pencils as needed.)