Listening 42 – Listen for specific words

I once volunteered to give martial arts classes to kids at a Fill in the blank 1 of 19 school in a poor neighborhood. I had about twenty students ages six to nine, and I know kids that age are Fill in the blank 2 of 19 rambunctious, but these kids were just completely out of control. If I looked away for two Fill in the blank 3 of 19 , they would be climbing onto tables, hitting each other, knocking over Fill in the blank 4 of 19 , and otherwise doing everything except for the activity I had asked them to do.

It seemed like there was nothing I could do to maintain Fill in the blank 5 of 19 or even any semblance of order whatsoever. I tried being nice, and the kids just Fill in the blank 6 of 19 me. I tried being firmer and stricter, and that would work for a few minutes but then they would start bouncing off the walls again. Even with another teacher Fill in the blank 7 of 19 me, we just could not control the class. I even had to threaten to cancel it if they didn’t Fill in the blank 8 of 19 – and then I had to follow through on that so they could see I wasn’t bluffing.

Well, after a lot of trial and Fill in the blank 9 of 19 , I found that the best activities for holding their attention were ones that involved everybody working Fill in the blank 10 of 19 as a group. One day we were doing a game that involved three teams, and I came up with a points system where the teams could gain points for following Fill in the blank 11 of 19 and doing the movements I asked for, or lose points if they disobeyed or were disruptive. I asked the other teacher to Fill in the blank 12 of 19 score on a piece of paper, and so many points were won and lost that by the time the game finished I had no clue which team was in the Fill in the blank 13 of 19 .

The other teacher gave me the scorecard, and when I tallied up all the points I saw that all three teams had tied with eight points each. I Fill in the blank 14 of 19 I’d need a tiebreaker, but I had no time to think of one – all the kids were looking at me and waiting for me to Fill in the blank 15 of 19 the results. So I said that team 1 had eight points, team 2 had eight points, and team 3 also had eight points.

Well, the room just exploded in Fill in the blank 16 of 19 . The kids all started jumping up and down and hugging and congratulating each other. There was a huge Fill in the blank 17 of 19 on every face. I was stunned by their reaction. I had been expecting them to be kinda disappointed since the result was pretty anticlimactic. I mean, I had really played up the whole “Fill in the blank 18 of 19 ” aspect, and in the end there was no clear winner. But the kids showed me that maybe it’s more important to Fill in the blank 19 of 19 things all together than to be obsessed with winning.