It has been a tough week so far. Yesterday, I woke up at 5am to arrive at school to host my school’s annual Spelling Bee. I had roped in students from my form class to be the emcees, so I wanted to be a reassuring presence.

The Spelling Bee proceeded quite decently, I guess. However, when my hyperactive (I mean it in a good way) uttered his last line and raised his hands in the air 🙌, I realised that my script didn’t allow him to showcase his naturally infectious personality. My carefully crafted lines were holding him back!

My script was BORING to a capital B!

Since the senior students were undergoing their Preliminary Round next week, I couldn’t in all good conscience make my student emcees for next week go through a similar experience.

So, this morning, I gathered my emcees and told them that we had to pivot. I want to employ a talkshow format for next week, in which they ask one another questions, share a little bit about themselves and let their natural personalities shine through the tedium of a school event.

To kickstart the brainstorming process, I asked them a couple of questions. The frustrating thing about teaching teenagers is that more often than not, they will tell you IDK. However, I was not deterred by their taciturn responses and dug deep. Eventually, I achieved this:

Tomorrow, I will gather my emcees and empower them by letting them have a say about the order of the questions and the flow of the content. I’m quite excited actually. Rationally speaking, the prospect of initiating a more collaborative approach should wear me out, since it’s just more convenient for my students to recite the lines I have prepared for them. But I remember that I’m in the business of bringing out the vitality from my charges, so I feel that I’m doing something worthwhile and meaningful.

Which is kinda cool because I lost my cowboy hat today but don’t feel that distraught about it haha.