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When I was a beginning teacher, I rarely concerned myself with the engagement of my students. I was fortunate to teach a subject which in itself is often highly engaging; music. I thought that there was no need for students to laugh in my classroom. In fact, I often thought that laughter was a sign that my students were "fooling around", thereby not learning and that my instruction was flawed. I have now been teaching for over thirty years, in two countries, three states in the US and in nineteen different schools. (Music teachers often work in three schools at a time in the northern United States.) I now believe that games (and the joyful laughter they create) are an essential part of a healthy and engaging classroom. I was excited to see that there was a unit in the course that presented many ideas for using games in the classroom. My background is in theatre arts as well as music, so I was familiar with many of the suggestions and have often used them, or variations of them as theater games or warm-up exercises. I am now embarking on a new challenge as a teacher of sixth graders in Shanghai. I will have two sections of ESL every day. After the completion of the course, I plan to use games extensively, especially during the "Engage" and "Activate" phases of my lessons. The learners that I will have are extremely motivated to learn. They are also among the brightest students in Shanghai of their age. I am very fortunate to be their teacher. My challenge will be to teach them that it is safe to laugh and have fun in class. From my past experiences teaching in China, the cultural differences of expected behavior in a classroom in the United States and in China are great. My job will be to create a safe learning environment for my students, in which they can express themselves and learn to use English with comfort. Engaging in game-playing from the very first day of class is the surest way to remove barriers for my students and to teach them that it is safe to make mistakes. I will emphasize cooperative games, especially at first. Competitive games certainly can have a place in the ESL classroom but because my students are already expected to compete as a cultural norm, I plan to emphasize cooperative games first in order to de-emphasize competitive divisiveness. My students will be expected to work in pairs and in groups regularly. Playing games with each other will help them to enjoy one another as teammates; rather than adversaries. It will also help them improve their receptive and productive skills while "working" at a game. My belief is that through games, expressive and receptive language skills will be exercised. Games can focus on new vocabulary usage and the development of specific sentence structures essential to the tasks. After the completion of a game, students will have the opportunity to self-assess, assess each other and reflect in order to identify their strengths and to identify areas needing improvement.
