Election Day Classroom Fun

Throughout my time in Taiwan, you've seen what happens outside the classroom. But now you'll get a little glimpse of what life is like inside. I had one of the most fun lessons thus far teaching my fifth graders about the American elections. I can't go into too much depth with them because much of it's obviously really complex, but it doesn't matter because we had some great fun together.

The vocabulary list I focused on included: vote, debate, promises, president, advertisement (to combine with the "Advertising" unit), and of course, Election Day. I started by introducing the class to the election of the president, where all the people in the country "vote" to see who will be "elected" as "president." We held a quick vote to see who would be president of the class. The students decided, and the nearly unanimous vote went to Regina, one of my favorite students. What the kids didn't know is that Regina would later be running against "Teacher Douglas" for the Taiwanese presidency.

I wanted the students to create their own political advertisement for Regina, so after quickly explaining advertising and advertisements, I had each of the students come up to add their ideas to Regina's campaign poster. The final product wasn't bad! Regina 2016! :)

I finally told them that I would be competing against Regina for the Taiwanese presidency, and they were shocked. It drew some questions like, "But you were not born in Taiwan!" I responded, "They said it was okay this time!" So Regina and I conducted a debate, and the rest of the students could ask us questions. The most important question in the students' minds, which I was impressed with, was "Will you help poor people?" I said, "Of course I will, I will give them what they need." "What will you do if you are President?" asked another student. I responded to great applause, "I will send everyone to Tokyo Disneyland!!" However, Regina countered with, "No school for everyone!!!" Regina wins. We voted on who would be elected Taiwan's president, and Regina won in a landslide. I garnered a total of 1 vote.

Next, I introduced them to the American candidates, through pictures of Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. Comments rang out from the students, "He's fat..." "He's ugly..." "They're so old..." I couldn't stop laughing. "I don't like them," said one of the students. Fair play. We discussed what a president does, and I explained that the president is the leader of their country, and they try to help the people in their country and work with other world leaders to improve important things. I asked them a question from the book, "What is the most important trait in a president?" They decided on honesty, because you need to be able to trust the person who is leading. Something that is lacking in a big way in Washington.

Now, it was time for grand finale. The USA election. The students were ready to cast their small ballots I cut out for them which said "Trump" and "Clinton," and checkboxes for each. Before we started, Jenny asked, "Will they help poor people?" Of course I had to have some more fun, and said "No they won't, they will only help rich people." Funnily enough, most of the evidence we've seen supports my claim. Might be oversimplified, but I don't think it's too far off. Another intelligent question was asked: "Can we write another person's name on the paper?" I grinned and said "Yes, you can." The students voted, and I collected them and read them out loud. The students thought one person would be better than voting for Trump or Clinton - and that person was me. I won the presidency of the United States. The students went wild, and proceeded to draw some funny faces on the other unfit candidates. And thus, the Election Day classroom fun had concluded.