Seems like ideas come to me whenever I’m looking after my baby girl.

Yesterday, I had my students play Jenga. Subsequently, when I was feeding my daughter, I thought of writing a short account to review vocabulary. Sentences literally appeared in my mind, like those teleprompters that newscasters rely on. I quickly dashed out the paragraph on my WhatsApp and sent it to my students. To entice them to actually read my masterpiece, I provided an incentive: the first student who gets all five questions correctly will receive Kit Kat chocolates.

Here’s the text I wanted them to engage with:

Task: Fill in the blanks

I am 1)…….,,,,,,,(disappointed, furious, thrilled) to learn Habits of Mind because lessons are fun. Today’s 2)…,,,,,… (challenge, experiment, journey) was to stack Jenga blocks without them collapsing. We 3)………… (combined, cooperated, created) together to compete against one another. We 4)…..,.,,,,, (courageous, discouraged, encouraged) one another to stay focused and positive. It was a fun 5)……….. (convenience, experience, performance).

Not bad. Four students participated in my Kit Kat Flash Challenge.

One student demonstrated the proof of work spirit very well. He copied the entire text on his exercise book and kept trying until he got all five questions correctly. Of course, I relented and gave him a little bit of help in the end. He could remember these words for life, thanks to my divine intervention!

Yes, all four students would get Kit Kat chocolates. I’m not beneath using bribes to motivate young people to work hard.

This is actually the first flash challenge I have done so far in my teaching career. I like that this old dog constantly seeks novel ways to engage with the art of learning!

Thanks for reading.