Friday, March 09, 2007

Game On

Ms. D.'s and my room at school has become the lunchtime hot spot for the "cool" kids. At our school - and in the junior class especially - the "cool" kids are double-highs: They have high social status as well as high academic status. They're great kids, and I've been enjoying their company immensely, but I still find it a trifle odd that they choose to sit in here every day. Like, literally - Every. Day.

And why exactly do they sit here? It's certainly not because of inclement weather - we live in California, remember? And much as I might like to believe otherwise, it's not for my witty conversational skills. No, there's a very specific reason they're here every afternoon without fail. And that reason is Connect Four.


That's right, folks. My 17-year-old students are in here every day playing Connect Four, a game for 7-year-olds. And they get intense about it, too. The line of "I play winner!" extends at least five or six people, including Ms. D., my supervising teacher (as opposed to Miss D., which is me). Every day, without fail, it's a full forty-five minute Connect Four marathon death match, winner take all. All what you ask? I have no idea, but they want it.

Of course, I really can't judge too harshly. I spent many of my high school lunches in the AP Chem room observing epic battles on the chess board. Pretty much every lab table had its own chess game going on, with hecklers/cheerleaders for each one. I, however, never played the game myself; I was only there because I had a mad crush on a couple of the chess dweebs. What can I say? I was young and foolish and easily won by a clever rook swap.

I wonder if any of the girls are spending their lunches here to swoon as their adolescent male of choice clinches his victory with the dropping of that red plastic disc.

8 comments:

Jane said...

My kids love Connect Four too. I think part of it is hanging out with you and the other teacher though. I will be "on top off" one student all day long nagging them about this or that, and no sooner does the bell ring when he is back at the door wanting to hang out. There is a lot of security in these mini communities.

BTW- I have just been reading some of your "Best of Posts. " You have a book in the making. I have no doubt that you will be a published author one day!

Anonymous said...

Ha! I am the owner of no less than four Connect Four games, and my 7 year olds LOVE 'em! ;)

Anonymous said...

Place six, say, Connect-4 games on a table in parallel, each plane separated sufficiently so all the boards are visible. The result is a 3D Connect 4 game. Gravity plays a role in regular Connect 4: it limits the placement of the pieces. An extra direction of gravity must be chosen to limit placement in the horizontal direction.

It'll set the kids' brains on fire.

Lady M said...

Nah, they're all in the room to enjoy the company of the Misses D.

And maybe the boys are there to watch their dream-girlfriends master the colored circles too. ;)

Dallas Blue said...

I SO love connect four. we had a tournament at my college the other day. YES.

Anonymous said...

dude, i love connect four!!!

Sandra said...

This really made me laugh because there was a GIANT 5 foot tall connect four game when I was on vacation at our resort. Little Shot and I loved it. Your students would have went nuts for it. Game on.

Lara said...

jane - i certainly remember wanting to hang out with a lot of my teachers, i'm just not so quick to believe that my students love hanging out with me. but thank you very much for your compliments on my "best of" posts. :) i'm glad you're enjoying them.

aly - yeah, but you teach elementary school, and i teach high school. it's a bit different. :-P

nereus - i actually completely don't understand what you said here, but it does sound interesting.

lady m - awwww, maybe they're there for my company, but i don't really know. and you have an excellent point - i shouldn't be sexist in my guessing. :)

sassy - really? wow. i haven't played that game since elementary school i think.

ali - do you play with your kids? maybe you can pass that love on, if you haven't already.

sandra - five feet? that's crazy. you're right that my kids would've gone crazy for it. i'll have to tell them about it.