Today in the BISP1-M class, the students were begging to play my invented game of "[broken link! FIXME] monkey darts."
Initially, I said no. I've been annoyed with these kids.
But then one boy said, in perfect English, "But… teacher! Monkey darts is my life."
This weakened my resolve. So I relented, and allowed them 5 minutes of throwing the toy, rainbow-colored, minneapolitan monkey at the whiteboard at the end of class.
The game has an aspect of gambling, the way that we've been playing it – if they hit the target, they get a small cash prize (in the form of my "[broken link! FIXME] alligator bucks"); but if they miss the target completely, they have to pay me from their savings.
The boy who told me that monkey darts was his life? He lost $6. Next stop: gamblers' anonymous.