Umbrella Farming

It's raining today, and everyone has their umbrellas. This is an absolute necessity, since the pollution is so bad that the rain is known to cause people's hair to fall out. In the back of every classroom there are perhaps a dozen colorful, parked umbrellas, open to dry. I'm slightly sleep-deprived and amused at the thought that we are hosting small clusters of umbrella farms all over the school. Does anyone else find that your mind more naturally begins to personify inanimate objects when you're very tired? When I was a kidand went to the store, in the back of my mind I was mindful to try to touch as many things as I could, thinking that perhaps some of the objects had never been touched by human hands and would somehow feel left out.

So I'm planning my lesson for my freshman conversation class next week, and I need your help! We've been doing a lot of work on the past simple tense with an emphasis on being able to talk about what you did last weekend or what happened to you. Next week I want to use some English music videos that tell a story that may or may not match the lyrics. I just want them to watch and listen and then be able to simply articulate what happened using the past simple or past perfect tense. I think it will be fun for them and help them to lose some of their inhibitions about speaking in front of each other. I've been having them play some acting/trust games to get them to loosen up, and I think that watching music videos will be enjoyable and interactive. Do you have any suggestions for good videos to use for this kind of exercise? Please leave them in the comments section. Also, where is a good place to watch/download them for free? Oh and don't be snobs! It can be cheesy, pop music as long as it's clear and easy to understand. You'd be appalled at how indiscriminate my tastes can be from time to time. ;o) I have conversation classes, listening classes, and some extra classes for the smart kids, so ideally I'd like to get a lot of material together this weekend. I have to write the entire curriculum for all of my classes, since they didn't give me any textbooks, which is a bit of a pain and a lot of work. I feel so sorry for the kids having to be at school until 9 pm every night with virtually no play time, and more than anything I want them to have fun in my class. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, guys.