PORT ANGELES — Preetha Patel followed a family tradition when she was selected as the teacher for a day in her Franklin Elementary School third-grade class last week.
Her mother, Minaxi Patel, was selected as the teacher for a day when she was a fourth-grader in India.
Preetha won the honor to preside over her class on Valentine’s Day by winning a geography map game.
Teacher Cynthia Green was searching for an educational website to help improve her students’ geography skills and discovered an interactive site called www.KidsGeo.com.
“There was a world map game that randomly showed 21 different countries and kept time on how long it takes you to drag them onto the world map and place them in their correct spot,” Green said.
“I got hooked on it and played it many times trying to beat my best score. My best score was 93 seconds.
“As a whim, I posted a challenge to my students on my blog and announced in class that the first student who correctly placed the 21 countries on the map and said the name of each country in 100 seconds or less could take over the class and be the teacher for one day,” Green said.
Her blog can be found at www.room5franklinschool.blogspot.com.
“Within two weeks, Preetha could do this in less than 100 seconds,” Green said.
“On the day she challenged me, her time was 75 seconds. Her best score to date is 59 seconds!”
Preetha taught the class Feb. 14 and instructed students in math, research reports and handwriting.
“[She] took her job very seriously,” Green said.
“She had us write research reports, complete a math page and work on handwriting; however, the handwriting was of her parents’ native language, Gugarati.
“At the end of the day, she managed a class Valentine’s party with cupcake decorating, games and distributing valentines — all without chaos. She’s quite a kid.”
Green said the practice of having a student teach a class is a regular occurrence in India; a student who is academically advanced and mature is selected.
