I've always heard that when a person loses one of his or her five senses, the other four are heightened. This is why, for example, blind people have amazing hearing and sense of touch and I'm assuming that deaf people have a heightened sense of eyesight. I've discovered that this is certainly true for my students. The less hearing they do (and they oftentimes ignore me), their sense of sight and their ability to talk (OK, I know it's not a sense, but it's with the mouth so work with me here) increases. Today, for example, I was wearing an orange wristband from the House of Blues, where I went yesterday to see Jars of Clay and NeedtoBreathe. Of course, I should have realized that as my kids weren't listening to me at the beginning of the period, their increased sense of vision would certainly pick
up o
n the orange wristband. And of course, I should have realized that as their hearing decreased, they would also need to increase their level of talking. WHich is what led to about tenty various hypotheses of what the wristband was from. Several of my favorites: I went to a club and got my groove on; I went to a bar and got really, really drunk; and my personal favorite- I went to Las Vegas and got married. To which I answered, "Yes, kids, because that's what I do every Wednesday night." This trend continued in the other periods when my students seriously turned off their ears and turned on their mouths. I probably had the same questions about a gazillion
times, two seconds after I had originaly answered the question. It got ot the point where a cold stare was all that I needed to keep class moving forward. In a perfect world, I wish that my students would decrease their sense of talking and increase their level of listening to me. But, as I always say.... if wishes were horses, I would win the Royal Ascot. At least I can take comfort in the fact that my kids think I have a much more glamourous social life than I really do. They would never believe me if I told them how much sitting around the house I do during the week. Maybe keeping up the illusion that I have a fantastically posh and cool social life will keep them interested. Who knows.....
I've always heard that when a person loses one of his or her five senses, the other four are heightened. This is why, for example, blind people have amazing hearing and sense of touch and I'm assuming that deaf people have a heightened sense of eyesight. I've discovered that this is certainly true for my students. The less hearing they do (and they oftentimes ignore me), their sense of sight and their ability to talk (OK, I know it's not a sense, but it's with the mouth so work with me here) increases. Today, for example, I was wearing an orange wristband from the House of Blues, where I went yesterday to see Jars of Clay and NeedtoBreathe. Of course, I should have realized that as my kids weren't listening to me at the beginning of the period, their increased sense of vision would certainly pick up o
n the orange wristband. And of course, I should have realized that as their hearing decreased, they would also need to increase their level of talking. WHich is what led to about tenty various hypotheses of what the wristband was from. Several of my favorites: I went to a club and got my groove on; I went to a bar and got really, really drunk; and my personal favorite- I went to Las Vegas and got married. To which I answered, "Yes, kids, because that's what I do every Wednesday night." This trend continued in the other periods when my students seriously turned off their ears and turned on their mouths. I probably had the same questions about a gazillion
times, two seconds after I had originaly answered the question. It got ot the point where a cold stare was all that I needed to keep class moving forward. In a perfect world, I wish that my students would decrease their sense of talking and increase their level of listening to me. But, as I always say.... if wishes were horses, I would win the Royal Ascot. At least I can take comfort in the fact that my kids think I have a much more glamourous social life than I really do. They would never believe me if I told them how much sitting around the house I do during the week. Maybe keeping up the illusion that I have a fantastically posh and cool social life will keep them interested. Who knows.....
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