PRIZES FOR TOUGH BOYS

by lorena
(Salta Capital , Salta, Argentina)

I work as an English teacher at a technical secondary school in Argentina. My pupils are all boys between 15 and 17. They go to school from early in the morning, to their workshop subjects 'till the evening , so they are pretty tired when they have classes with me ( The last three periods on Friday evenings ).

I love being busy, so , while they are working on their grammar, I usually transform any piece of paper I found in "something" , from cranes , to boxes , and beating hearts. Last year, I was folding one of those cute beating hearts when one of my students asked me for one for his girlfriend. I agree as long as he finished his classwork properly. No soon did I say these when I have 20 boys , eagerly working to win "the" beating heart from their teacher. Needless to say , I folded many hearts that night and had as "homework" many more to fold for the next class.
Furthermore , they would finish their assignments quickly in order to have special origami classes.
It's amazing how a simple thing like a paper crane can build strong bonds between "tough boys" and their English teacher ( did I mention that they don't like English very much? )

Lorena