Jesus, Etc.

I began teaching my Christmas lesson at the middle school today and I thought I'd share a few tidbits with you:

1.) When reading over my history of Christmas speech, I stopped to quiz the students on a few key terms. "Who is Jesus Christ?" Silence. I then write "Jesus Christ" on the board and repeat the question. Again, silence and puzzled stares. "Jesus Christ was born on Christmas. Who is Jesus Christ?" Finally, one bold student speaks up. "Santa!" he yells out. The rest of the room nods in agreement.

2.) Part of the Christmas lesson dictated by the textbook involves listening to an embarrassingly bad cover of John Lennon's "Happy Christmas" by a nameless group of studio musicians and then filling in the blanks on the lyric sheet. In one class, when the English teacher asked the kids if they knew who John Lennon was, their answer was to loudly reenact Lennon's death. Apparently, he died while singing and playing a guitar and was shot with some sort of machine gun.

3.) I prepared a Christmas word-search for the middle school classes but since they were unfamiliar with most of the terms, they needed to be explained. In one of the classes, I read the words out loud in English and then the teacher explained them to the class in Japanese. When I got to "elves," she explained, "They help Santa. They are very small animals."

Additionally, I had a breakthrough at the kindergarten today. I've been trying to teach the four year-olds how to play duck, duck, goose since August but my results up to this point have been less than encouraging. No matter how much I explain, correct and demonstrate, the minute someone says "goose" the entire circle gets up and starts running around the room in all directions. Well, today, for no apparent reason, both of the classes instantaneously understood the game and were able to play with little explanation. I guess five months is the amount of time it takes a four year-old to internalize and comprehend a new idea? At this rate, I'll only need another two games to fill out the year.