I have a potato.

This week my students gave 1 minute presentations about an item they brought to class. Show and Tell, really.

My Chinese students were more prepared than my Mongolian students by far. Most of my students in my Mongolian class on Tuesday weren't even prepared. I told them I would give them a second chance next week. By far, most students talked about mundane objects like their cell phones, notebooks, dictionaries. I am learning lessons in patience as I teach 6 2-hour classes, and hear over 200 students give nervous presentations of mundane objects. There were a few show-offs who spoke better than others and took it upon themselves to ramble on and on, repeating the same thing over and over, just because they had the courage to, and wanted to be heard. I curtailed their presentations, and next week I will give a lesson on the no, no's of repetition. There were some creative students who forgot their object, but presented anyway, on their watch, their earrings, or announced that they had no object but wanted to talk about their hometown, or the Olympics.

The best presentation was by a Mongolian girl called Kiky. She came up to the front of the class with her backpack. "Do not think that I am going to present about my bag," she said, "because I am not." She then wrote the word 'potato' on the board.
"How many potatoes do we have here?" she asked, and pointed to the word potato that she had written. The class called out, 3, 5, 1... She then, circled the 'o' in the p, the 2 o's, and the a, and then she made a big circle around the word. "5!" she cried out. She had the class at her full attention. They were giggling and entertained. She then took a potato out of her backpack.
Then she took out a knife. She cut the potato in half. We were all laughing. Then she held up half of the potato and talked about how the potato is starch and how a special food is made from the starch of the potato. Then she put the potato back down the desk and took a marker and drew something on it. Then she took her knife and began carving the potato. When she was finished she had cut out a piece of potato in the middle shaped like a heart.
The chalk board was so chalky and dry, and the potato was wet. She pressed the potato stamp on the board and made pretty little heart stamps. Then she took a piece of potato with more of a pointed end and wrote her name, "kiky" on the board with it. By this time, the whole class and myself included were astonished and impressed. Her name and the hearts stayed written on the board for the rest of the class. Good job Kiky! I won't forget your face among the crowd now!