Take that and chew on it!

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So there I was, deep in thought about deep listening. Thinking hard about how important it is to just listen to people and let them talk without throwing in your own experiences or ideas, when up walked one of my students to ask if I wanted to play snakes and ladders. Well, does one really have to ask?! Of course I want to play snakes and ladders! Only it turns out we didn’t play snakes and ladders, we played a game called “roll the dice and make up the rules”, and it went a little something like this:

First we pulled out the board and made playing piece out of erasers, pencil sharpeners and other desk paraphernalia. Two dice were located and the fun began. I noticed that the board didn’t really look like snakes and ladders but I didn’t say anything. I got to roll first, which seemed like a nice move on their part, and around the board we preceded. It was a simple spiral formation with different pictures on each square. Everything seemed normal, you roll, move your number and then the next person goes. Then all of a sudden I apparently landed in “jail”. Now, it looked to me more like a water well, but who am I to judge right? So apparently there is no way of getting out of “jail” unless another player rolls into the same jail, so there I sat for the rest of the game. Luckily it’s a fast one so off we went again. This time when a four was rolled you got to move 12 spaces, and if a 10 was rolled you got to move 20 spaces. Hmmmmm, ok. And then there was this rule with the skull space which yes, I also had the misfortune of landing on. Now, I admit that a space with a skull on it does seem like it would be a bad thing, and in this case it is for sure because you die and have to start all over.

So here I was, a teacher playing a game with her students. A teacher who has a hard time communicating with her students because of the language barrier and doesn’t know the rules of the game we are playing. A teacher who is growing a strong suspicion that these are not standard rules. So the tables are turned and I am completely at the mercy of my students for learning the rules and experiencing the world.

Now there’s some experience for reflection eh?!

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Comments

[Linds]

no live snakes were used in this story
absolutely love that your students are teaching you! and through their creative snakes and ladders game...have to admit the entire time i was waiting for the part about the real snake coming out...no good, so really it was a win win situation. Learning experience and no live snakes. miss you loads BN. SEE YOU SOON! it all sounds incredible. big kisses xoxoxo Linds