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Invisible Students
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22 thoughts on “Invisible Students”
Ok, this is hilarious! And I think I might try it, when the kids aren’t giving me cute answers. We might have a cool kid like Harry Potter, too…
Love this! I’ve got 13 7th graders (makes up for my 31 8th graders) and while I know these kids can bring the energy, I think having a couple of extra kids in the class will give us some flexibility. Something to keep in the back of my mind. (Well, along with 25 other things! 😉 )
This is a cool idea. I thought about doing this with my smallest class (the highest level has 5 students). I wanted to ask them who else is in the class (celebrities, stuffed animals, made up people all totally fine with me depending on what they like… these kids generally know how to play). Maybe the bigger groups would enjoy it, too.
I figure that when I get asked to clarify or slow down, it’ll be so those students can understand. In Chinese: “Teacher, Chewbacca doesn’t understand. Can you say that again?” (I would really like to have a Star Wars character in my class.) It would go well with the Great Wall virtual window on the classroom wall, where I hope to tape some student-supplied photos & move them around as the year progresses. We’ll see if/how it happens… depends on the students.
(Hi Kari! We met at iFLT, right? I think you’d said then that you had joined the PLC. Nice to see your comment.)
Yes, this is me. I joined the PLC actually almost 2 years ago, but I’m realizing the value of being more active. Spending some of my FB time here, as you joked about our first night at dinner.
Hi Kari!!! Welcome! So glad to hear from you!! 🙂
~~MB from Maine (met you that first night in MN!)
Yayy Kari! 🙂 🙂
Hola Leah!!!!
Has your year started yet? This is our first day….
Julie 🙂
Julie!! <3 <3
We are having our district opener today (just staff). I was feeling sleepy listening to the speaker so I grabbed some coffee and am now hiding in my classroom. 🙂 I start with students on Monday… Hope your day is going great!
🙂
Some of my classes are small, too. I love this idea! Maybe in all the classes, no matter what size. Maybe just one in the larger classes. And Diana, the idea of clarifying for the invisible ones is perfect. You could use that even if nobody asks for clarification but you have your doubts about some kids, so you address the invisible one.
This is just splendid! (I’m trying to replace “great” sometimes with some different words 😉
Ooo! Nice! The teacher notices that class member Darth Vader seems lost but didn’t signal, so she repeats more slowly, pausing and pointing.
This is a lot like doing an OWI of a fictitious character, having a student draw this fictitious character, pasting it on the wall, and referring to it for stories and asking it questions. “Class, what does Sharkzilla think?” Am I right? It’s basically the same thing. You’re just creating a more real-life kinda character, Ben.
These OWI fictitious characters, like Ben’s invisible students, were mentioned during our TCI Chicagoland meeting this past Saturday, where a dozen or so fabulous teachers got together again for our quarterly meeting, this time at Wolcott school in Chicago. Elaine Winer of Wolcott has now brought on two additional Spanish teachers to her school with the determination to do nothing else besides TPRS. Elaine is a powerhouse! I’m so grateful to have her leadership, (not to mention that of others like the ladies at Winnetka).
Mad props to all veteran teachers out there!
Ben,
that is a fantastic idea!
I can’t wait to do this with my small classes this year! Brilliant!
When I was in high school, some friends and I created a fake student and actually got him “enrolled” (with the help of an attendance clerk and an activities director). So, anyone who needs another invisible student: I would like to introduce you to Fortunato Sausalito. Originally from D.F. (Mexico City), he moved to the “Dog Patch” area of Paramount, CA, when he was a sophomore. No one is quite sure what he looks like – descriptions seem to vary – but he is a history genius, plays soccer and saxophone, speaks Spanish and English and is learning French. Math skills are only so-so.
BTW, I am working on some ideas to re-introduce The Realm in my upper level class. I’ll let you all know about it later.
Give Fortunato all best regards from India, Robert. Tell him he is welcome here anytime.
Our imaginary student is named ‘Tangerine’ and his/her permanent spot is the return air vent in the classroom. That’s as far as we got on day one. I will do ‘Student of the day’ or some variation of it later on though…
I like starting the year this way so far…
Leigh Anne I can’t wait to hear how the S of the W interviews go with Tangerine. You could have a real student sit in for her while she listens in from the air vent.
Can’t wait to tell my classes tomorrow that there is a girl in an air vent in a classroom in California who listens in on class but is too shy to come out. My middle school kids will take that seriously.
Today, we took 30 minutes to discover Tangerine’s nationality and gender…. I would never have imagined that a group of students would request that we go through 50 different nationalities….turns out that s/he is Atlantian… of course
Amazing…
As we say in Period 6, “Oh, la, la, Tangerine!!!”
Oh, BTW — my class is 35+ and they *adore* Tangerine.
The girl in the air vent. Why is she there? Is she shy, class? What caused her to be there? Dude.
Robert Harrell – Hilarious! I love this thread even more reading the newer comments. I’m going to write a note for myself to use this tomorrow. Especially in a couple “dead idea” classes.
Just tried this today and it was amazing. The magic, the energy in creating these characters! I’ve already had to email one invisible student’s mother, because he behaved so badly in class!