The Child Who Knew Tokyo
“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.” ― Franklin P. Adams
It was an usual day at school. However the last period turned out to be something very unique and exciting. Obviously, this is what makes school the most exciting workplace; most passionate teachers may agree with me on this :).
Well! The day was already a long one, especially for the children. Acknowledging this fact, my colleague and I decided to do a combined session, and conduct a quiz. We thought it would be fun, and the students will have something engaging and learn something meaningful in the session.
Usually, after back-to-back classes, children get disinterested in the usual academic sessions, especially ones scheduled at the end of the school hour, and are in mood to leave school and head home.
That day, 50 minutes still remaining for the school hour to get over.
My colleague and I started the set-up for the quiz. As resource, the class had a large world map, and we discussed and agreed on some instructions for the quiz. Apart from the places, the map also had, prominently labelled, deserts, mountain ranges, and seas on the map. Students were excited as they got divided into two groups. Each group would secure 10 points for each accurate pin on the map. In case of wrong pin on the map by the first team would give chance to the other team to try and place the pin correctly.
Finally the quiz began (there’s no shortcut to a detailed instructions). My colleague announced, “Chicago”. Each team sent their representative. The timer countdown began, and so did the game. There were hints and secret informations passed on to the representatives. Both teams were excited and restless. Near the map, the representatives tried gradually moving from Europe to Asia and then to South America. Time was running out…each second was important.
Suddenly, the timer rang. Sixty seconds were up! (the representatives felt cheated as they didn’t realise how fast 60 seconds evaporated; this is always the case when students are engrossed in learning, time flies, no room for boredom, no disruptions. Yay!)
We decided to allow more time. Two minutes for each attempt.
There was hustle and bustle. Children were in thinking mode, collaborating and discussing. Undoubtedly, they were observing the map with a lot of concentration. Lots of prior knowledge being activated. Collaboration and communication amongst peers at its high (Isn’t it a great time to see in a classroom?).
Meanwhile, Chicago got located with support from the facilitator. The first team won 10 points. There was jubiliation. The first earning of the points definitely was a encouraging, and a thing of pride for the team.
The second round started with Team B. They were excited, but also nervous what if their representative takes fails to pin the location within the time frame…what if he gets confused and lost in the large map infront of him.
My colleague alerted all to be calm and announced the new keyword. This time it was the Red Sea. It was perhaps a bit easy one. The representative pinpointed it almost a few seconds before the timer rang.
There were a few rounds of the quiz that day. It was so much fun.
Now I come to the most interesting, and I considered it as the highlight of the session. The name of the place to be pinned was Tokyo. Both team representatives tried their best and gave up. The gazed, and scanned through the whole map. Tokyo was just not there. North to South, East to West — Where is Tokyo? 60 seconds were over. One spotted Turkey, but other said, “Don’t you know the spelling of Tokyo?”. But suddenly, a member from team B said, “May I locate it?”. My colleague and I said, “Why not, please go ahead”. He came forward with a lot of confidence, took a few seconds to observe the orientation of the map and then…. “Here…here, Tokyo…Tokyo is here. In Japan”.
“Excellent”, said my colleague with a big smile on his face (part of his happiness comes from the fact that the Team B student who pointed out Tokyo was from his class:)).
I was curious, and I asked the student — how do you know ‘Tokyo’? He responded, “from anime series”. “Sounds great!”, I said with smile. This is actually not the first instance that I found a 10-year-old fan of anime series from Japan. I have observed my cousins grow up with such series and perhaps imagined their homework would be helped by some magical anime like Doraemon, the famous fictional character who was nominated as anime ambassador by Japan’s Foreign Ministry. Doraemon was created by legends Fujiko Fujio.
As I reflect as an educator, and as Instructional Desginer, I see so much of space for micro innovations in everyday classroom practices. And, often it is about thoughful design and careful choice using already available time and resources.
I will end this post with a timeless quote by Benjamin Franklin
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
