Because I felt like having a bit of fun with my students and because I wanted them to learn how to think, I sometimes did rather crazy things with them. On one occasion, before class started, I spoke to one of them and told him that we would be playing a little prank on the rest of the class. Once everybody was seated, I would write two words on the blackboard: facts and inferences. I explained to the student that as soon as I had finished writing the word “inferences”, he was to get up, shout, “I’m not going to take this anymore.”, throw an eraser at me, walk out of the classroom, and slam the door. He was to wait outside the classroom until I called him back in.
The student performed his role to perfection and even managed to hit me on the bald spot on the back of my head. Once he slammed the door, there was dead silence in the classroom. All faces were turned to me waiting to see what I would do. I simply said, “We’re not going to let this upset us. Let’s use it to talk about those two words I wrote on the board. Tell me, what just happened a minute ago?” Hands went up and students volunteered answers to my question. I jotted these down in one or the other column under the two words.
Once we had finished doing this, I went to the door and asked the “angry student” to come in and tell the class why he had behaved the way he did.
With so many poorly drawn conclusions and inferences circulating on social medias, I think I might have to serve as target practice again and draw a bullseye on the back of my head.
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