beware: assistant on a war-path

oh you best watch yourself today...for i am natalie, the american assistant, hear me roar!!!

so i had my second meeting today with a group of terminales...for our second meeting i busted out a parlor game that has been quite successfull with the other classes...you put a celebrity's name on their back and they have to ask yes-or-no questions to guess their identity...very easy, but a nice way to warm them up and get them speaking...well, usually...

so i was walking around putting the names on their backs...the students always crack up when you put britney spears on the class tough guy...anyways, i was putting "madonna" on one of the girls when a kid in the back starts singing "like a virgin"...i tell them to knock it off and stop spoiling the game for everyone...i let them start asking questions and it's pretty obvious they're cheating...come on, there's no way they guessed "shrek" in only three questions...i've played this game at least 10 times in the past three weeks...you're just not that smart...

so i pass out names for a second round, and the jokers are at it again...singing "wild wild west" for will smith...shouting "dopeur" for lance armstrong...i'm starting to get frustrated...finally when i hand out "jennifer lopez" one of the students yells "ooohh! i love (insert word* for female anatomy)!"...ok, that's it...i tell him to get out of my classroom immediately...of course he tries to say that he's sorry and that he didn't know what it meant...give me a break, we've all studied a foreign language as a high school student...those are the first words you look up in the dictionary...this kid knows exactly what it means...

once he finally left i continued on with the game, but they kept cheating....so, i stopped the game and gave them a nice, long article from the new york times...i know it's not the best move, punishing them with reading in a foreign language, but in my opinion it's their own fault...i gave them the chance to do the "fun" activity and they threw it away...at least a few of them actually understood it and were able to have a discussion afterwards...i just feel bad punishing the two good students...

thank god my day is over now...

* hint: if you watch inside the actors studio, it's robin williams favorite swear word