::A Geek in Korea::

One of the most creative activities that our text book have wasn’t given the proper time or effort to be made into a complete lecture. There was a story about a young guitar playing genius. She had written her on songs, and had recorded her own album at the age of 11. The book used lots of the grammar they were learning in the lesson, and even added a small amount of basic punctuation to the exercise. Then they had questions the students should answer about their own musical abilties.

I turned this activity into a full out lesson that took most of the class. I created my own handout based on this exercise. At the top, the student had to draw their own album art and create four song titles for their imaginary group to sing. Then, I had them create their own band and make up it’s history in a series of questions. The students were unsure if they were allowed to lie or not, but I encouraged them to be as creative as they could be. I got some very nice responses, since they could copy the article from the book, subsituting the information from their questions to make the article about themselves.

Some of my students can actually play music very well. Everyone in the school can play piano. It’s nearly a requirement of Korean school. Most have played piano multiple years and have at least one other instrument under their belt as well. In my class I had one clarinet player, one pianist, and one guitar player in a group of six. They probably could have recorded an album between all of them that would have sounded pretty good. They always ask me if I know how to play any music.

They are always a little embarassed when I tell them that I’ve only learned how to play one song in my life, and it was on the recorder.  The classic "Hot Cross Buns" is the only song I’ve mastered, and only the beginning.  My musical education never "took". I had a year of uninteresting trumpet lessons. I disliked practicing, had no timing, and the only bonus to the entire program was getting out of class from time to time to drain spit valves and pretend to know how to play.

Despite my skills, I made my own "Hot Cross Buns" album, featuring the song, the instrumental version, as well as the "Hot! Hot Cross Bunz!-European Dance Remix", and "Hot Cross Bizzuns featuring: Snoop Doggy Dog". If you are going to go for something silly, you might as well go all out. I made my own cover art, then wrote a very serious article while I laughed the entire class. The students surprised me at how well they did at the activitiy, asking me for different musical styles and artists. They got to show off their musical vocabulary as well.

I’m not sure if my students appreciate the creativity I try to put into my lessons to keep them having fun. I do notice my students don’t tend to whine for games very often if I do a good job creating their activities. This is motivation enough to try hard, because it’s rather annoying to hear them complain about being bored.