It was one of our first nights at our last camp, and we were instructed to put on a “performance” about the American holidays. I was instructed to teach the students about Christmas. Having the youngest students at the camp I naturally thought to myself, “What is one song or activity that they might understand about Christmas.” Before I could begin to teach a performance, I had to educate them on Christmas.
As I strolled into the steaming hot classroom at 7:30 pm, with sweat dripping down my face, I began to teach the students about Christmas. I drew some pictures on the board, hoping that this alone would convey Christmas. I drew a house, a Christmas tree, reindeer and a sleigh, Santa and the toys, and many other Christmas related pictures. The students starred at me, blankly, something I had become a professional at recognizing, and thought to myself, “That is it, I’m acting this out.” I blew up my cheeks, squatted a little and held out my arms creating an image of a very, very fat person (Santa). I then walked to the imaginary chimney and climbed in. I wriggled down the chimney and rolled onto the floor. Looking sweaty and disheveled, I began to walk around the class with a sack of toys thrown over my shoulder, still holding the fat man image. I asked each of the students if he/she had been good that year. If they said “yes” I gave them a toy, if the student did not answer I said, “You must have been bad, no toy for you.” The students found this very funny, and by the end every student was responding ‘yes.”
They got it! The students actually knew who Santa was, and what he was doing with the sack on his shoulder. I was thrilled. Acting like a complete fool had helped the students learn about Christmas. As I walked back to my room thinking about the success of the students a young girl student of mine stopped me. She had a sincere smile on her face and she was starring at me, in awe she said, “You were lovely,” and she was gone. I was very confused. She had just used the word, “lovely” to describe me, a sweaty teacher, imitating a fat man squeezing down a chimney. It was then that I realized that acting like a fool in my eyes, was in their eyes not a fool at all but instead a great teacher. I reflected on the many students I had had over the course of the summer and I realized that my best lessons always involved me acting, playing and laughing with the students. Maybe I was making a difference.
