Why I'm writing this blog

Picture this- you walk into your 3º ESO classroom and there's a number of students swirling around the room, putting off the unpleasant taks of sitting down and taking their textbooks out. Some of them flutter by pretending to not have noticed you, and someone meekly approaches you and, in a thin voice, asks- 

"Can we do something fun?"

What, my classes aren't fun? What is wrong with these students? 

What is wrong with the textbook that some writers and teachers so paintakingsly put together? The book the students' parents paid 30€ for at the start of the year? Yes, you know, the book students so avidly decorate every lesson? That book? 

Well, on close inspection, yeah, I admit it- that book isn't that much fun. 

But wait, there are other things we do. I play recordings and the students have to fill out gaps or mark boxes with the right answer to some questions... 

erm... 

yeah, that's not that much fun either. 

How about writing? Let's learn how to write a letter of application. Or better still- a report. No- wait, I've got it! An essay! Yeah, that'll do it. An essay should send all the students into ecstasy. I personally love essays. And my red pen? Yeah, it loves essays too, it sees a lot of action... 

No, wait, something's wrong. 

Not that teaching has to be fun. Some people say that it shouldn't be fun. After all, it wasn't fun when they were taught and they still learned, right? 

Looking back to my own learning experience, I don't really remember it being fun. I just remember it was something I had to do, and my teachers were teachers, not stand-up comedians. So I WANT MY STUDENTS TO DO WHAT I DID- SIT DOWN, OPEN THEIR BOOKS AND LEARN. 

That won't do. Their faces get longer and longer, their mouths draw and upside down smile, and I spy someone sitting in the third row taking a thick marker pen out of a pencil case (their pencil case? difficult to tell from here) and moving it towards their open book... it's happening... they're vandalising the book because in this society it is frowned upon to vandalise teachers (it's called assault) and they've got to take out their frustation and boredom on something. 

So, maybe a little bit of fun wouldn't be too harmful. Even if it's now and again. Even if it's only for a few minutes at the end of the lesson. 

Right, let's do it, then... let's find stuff for the kids to do in class, stuff they can sink their teeth into and enjoy and take something out of... stuff so they learn and they enjoy themselves and they stop destroying their material... 

If you're still reading (hiya!) expect to find links to fun, or different, websites or blogs with activities that 14 year-olds should enjoy. And, in due course, if everything works out fine, I intend to post my own! Let's see how it works out!

Thanks for reading!