Hostage Crisis and Henry Ford

Amazingly, the little minions survived Wednesday tutoring. One of them came close to the can of whoop-hiney (okay, it’s my blog, and I don’t want to swear…all these innocent minds, you know). He hummed, he whistled, he tapped his foot, and I gave him the one-more-sound-and-you-are-toast-mister look. In the end, it wasn’t half bad, though. They actually participated in a round of Jeopardy and we ended on a pleasant note.

Today was quite the interesting lesson. I do an interactive Henry Ford assembly line when I teach the 1920’s. According to the historical requirements of Mr. Ford’s workers, the students may not lean on the machinery (desks), speak, talk, sing, whistle, or smile. The smile is the killer. If they broke a rule, then they would not be paid for their work on the assembly line. Their task? Drawing cars.

My third period class decided to take matters a step further. Not trusting herself to keep her mouth shut or not to smile, one brave little girl brought a roll of painter’s masking tape with her. She cheerfully taped her mouth shut. Not to be outdone, the remaining students decided that not only was the blue tape quite the fashion statement, but it would solve their dilemma of not smiling during the simulation.

It looked like a room filled with hostages. I’m not kidding. I half expected someone to bust out with a jihad explosive vest. There we were, for thirty minutes…coloring cars, with all of my students’ mouths taped shut.

Man, why can’t teaching be like this every day?:thumbsup:

Update: Here they are, by popular request. I blurred their faces to protect privacy. But you get the idea.
and here: