Okay, it was actually yesterday the 15th, historically speaking. However, today in my classroom it is the Great Sinking of the Titanic.
It is the day the students drown. Not all of them. A few of them get into lifeboats. The rest, though? Ka-put.
Don't panic! Don't report me to the school board or the police!
It is these little facsimiles that become the players in the game. Elaborate scenarios have been created, and each student gets to pick one, two, sometimes three times out of the basket to read his or her fate the night the Titanic hit the iceberg.
But these are not just any fates written on paper. These are creative ones: Doesn't the band sound great? You are patiently waiting for their last song when you begin to wonder if the set will ever end. Ooops, you missed another lifeboat...
This is one way the students get a feel for the random shit-luck of it all without risking anything more than a little paper person who gets attached to a bulletin board with a staple. And it makes great fodder for their postmortem/rescue stories.
The kids love the game, but for me it's a little more sinister. It's cathartic in a way. Just in a way, though. It never fails. Every year I have one or two students who manage to get under my skin, and every year those one or two students are always first into the lifeboats. This is my way of reminding myself with only weeks left to go in the final semester of the school year to chill ... literally ... and remember these are just kiddos, and not bad young kiddos, truth be told.
Now, if I could play this game with some of my bosses, present and former (all of my jobs, not just this one) ... Then I might have something. Even if nothing comes of it, I'd get to voodoo-staple their asses to my bulletin board, and that alone might be just enough to make me feel better.
Climb aboard, kiddies, the Titanic sinks ... er ... sails today. Take your boarding pass and find a comfy desk because it's going to be a bumpy few hours in my classroom.
