The Ketchup Prank

For about a month, I've been collecting ketchup packets.

I've put them all into my candy bucket at work. My friends and coworkers have contributed to the ketchup fund.

The goal was to get enough ketchup to not only outnumber the candies, but to also fill the bucket a decent amount.

Last week, that goal was met.

We've been teaching hybrid online/offline classes. I taught a lesson on gerunds to my low-proficiency middle schoolers, in which they played a game toward the end.

I split my class into two teams for the game: classroom (Team DYB: six students) versus online (Team Zoom: fifteen students). The energy was amazing. I love it when a class comes in with the willingness to have fun. My classroom students brought that. They wanted to have fun. They were willing to learn. It was like having a game show audience from the very first moment of class, like a light was blinking "Applause" and "Cheer" over my head. The Zoom students were...alive. Haha. They would sometimes talk, but remained rather quiet throughout class, unless called upon.

So, when we got to the game portion of the class, even though Team DYB was outnumbered, they knew they had their win in the bag.

Five minutes into the game: Team DYB was up by 10 points. Team Zoom: 3 points total. I asked Team DYB if they'd like to give Team Zoom a chance. "OK, OK. Give them a chance," they conceded.

I give Team Zoom a moment to answer a question, for anyone to pipe up, anyone at all. No one answered. I called on one student who usually participates. She answered. Team Zoom earned two points.

"Ohhhhh," lamented a couple members of Team DYB. "No, no, it's OK," said another. "We're OK." Team DYB still had the lead.

At the end, Team DYB won by about 10 points. I asked my co-teacher if I could bring them a prize. My co-teacher told them in Korean that I'd be bringing them back something.

"Ooooh, teacher, candy?" one students asked.

"Mmmhmmm," I hummed in response. Muahaha. They had no idea.

I returned after two minutes with my ketchup bucket.

"Here you go! Congratulations on your win!" I handed the bucket to one boy.

He laughed lightly, mostly confused. "Tomato ketchup?" he asked, but he took a packet, anyway.

"Yeah!" I said. "Delicious!"

I held the bucket to another student, and he looked through my diverse packet collection from various fast food restaurants around my neighborhood: McDonald's, Lotteria, Mom's Touch, etc.

"Ooh, Lotteria!" one of the boys said, taking the Lotteria ketchup packet.

I finally gave in and informed him that there was candy at the bottom of the bucket. He kept his Lotteria ketchup and also took a Damla (a popular Turkish fruit chew candy). The other boys in the class also each took one ketchup packet and one candy. When I got to only girl on Team DYB, she reached for a candy, hesitated, looked up at me, and said, "Uh, teacher, I'll just take the candy."

Mind you: I hadn't told the boys to take the ketchup. That was the first reason I couldn't stop laughing. Clever girl.

As I headed toward the classroom door, I saw a couple boys had poured ketchup on napkins. They were playing "Gawi, Bawi, Bo" (Scissors, Rock, Paper) to see who would go first in their lose-lose bet. But they were both a little too eager to lose, and they both acted at the same time:

They each unwrapped a fruit candy,

dipped it into the ketchup,

and ate it.

Yes.

The "winner" unwrapped his candy. "Orange and ketchup," he announced.

Yes. An orange fruit candy dipped in ketchup.

And he popped it right into his mouth.

The face I was making under my mask:

Truth be told, when I started collecting ketchup for this silly prank, I thought I might just get blank stares. My students already know I like to be silly and tell bad jokes.

There's a very high likelihood that I will get that reaction from my other classes when I pull this on them.

But this class was the cincher. Their reactions were more than I could have ever asked for.

And yes, I claim that I'm silly, but these middle school boys totally one-upped me by dipping their fruit candy in ketchup. Yikes.

Perhaps I should just packet in after this first success, but we'll see if the other classes can ketchup to the bar this class set.