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Oct. 25th, 2008 08:39 pmToday I taught almost-teens. I love teaching late primary/early high school students. They're receptive and imaginative. They are also capable of wearing their names on their foreheads, which is cute.
One boy almost cheered every time something came up that he could use in a battle, while two girls are working on a story about the friendship of ... two girls. This is not my influence - it's their preferences at work. What is my influence is that, when designing their towns today, each and every student worked out night-soil collection and where public toilets were located. All the towns have good water supplies and local fields and forest. Every single town was given a history - they are all far more than lines on a piece of paper. One student tried to place the castle under the protection of the town, but it turned out this was misinterpretation on my part.
"How does it protect the town if the town surrounds it so completely?" I asked, when I realised my error.
"With artillery and catapults and things."
"How accurate is all the war equipment?"
"Not really very, but it makes a really good fight."
"Sure, but tell me how those balls of fire you told me about before actually protect the town when they land on one of the thatched roofs by mistake?"
I can't count the number of times I've had this conversation. Today though, it was only one student. I still sent them to Flick's book, which has a good fictional description of a town under siege.
Another student had a castle that looked as if it was in the centre of things, but wasn't - an old town had been seperseded by a new one on the other side of a river, and the new one was madly protected and the old one not, due to changing politics.
One boy almost cheered every time something came up that he could use in a battle, while two girls are working on a story about the friendship of ... two girls. This is not my influence - it's their preferences at work. What is my influence is that, when designing their towns today, each and every student worked out night-soil collection and where public toilets were located. All the towns have good water supplies and local fields and forest. Every single town was given a history - they are all far more than lines on a piece of paper. One student tried to place the castle under the protection of the town, but it turned out this was misinterpretation on my part.
"How does it protect the town if the town surrounds it so completely?" I asked, when I realised my error.
"With artillery and catapults and things."
"How accurate is all the war equipment?"
"Not really very, but it makes a really good fight."
"Sure, but tell me how those balls of fire you told me about before actually protect the town when they land on one of the thatched roofs by mistake?"
I can't count the number of times I've had this conversation. Today though, it was only one student. I still sent them to Flick's book, which has a good fictional description of a town under siege.
Another student had a castle that looked as if it was in the centre of things, but wasn't - an old town had been seperseded by a new one on the other side of a river, and the new one was madly protected and the old one not, due to changing politics.