We were looking at Christmas song videos the other day, in a middle school class – as a kind of reward at the end of class. So I was searching on youtube, and it was up on the screen with the projector. I actually like to do things like this – the kids can engage with a routine, day-to-day "how to search the internet in English" undertaking, at a practical level. They can sort of "look over my shoulder" as I try to find something, all the time as I also talk, explaining what I'm doing. They pick up vocabulary about things like "click there," "search for X," that kind of thing, which is often missing in formal curricula, if only because a lot of this terminology is still pretty new.
A girl who sometimes goes by Sally was quite funny. I had the youtube search results up, and I was scrolling through them. She jumped up, as if it were an emergency.
"Teacher! Stop!" She said, assertively. "You need to click that 'Official Video.' I need to see that handsome man right away."
Of course, I broke down laughing. "Oh, you 'need' to see that?"
She nodded vigorously, all seriousness.
So I clicked the video – some saccharinely handsome American pop star, singing a forgettable rendition of a Christmas song. I didn't bookmark it. But you get the idea.
[daily log: walking, 7km]