The day I introduced cootie catchers to my middle school.

The past four days, while carpenters have been building new desks for the students, we having been having class outside in the shade of the building. There isn’t a chalkboard, so we haven’t really been having class.

Today, after a game of hopscotch where the students had to spell words in English while jumping the spaces, I was left with an hour of class.

“Take out a piece of paper,” I instructed my students and then proceeded to have them follow as I folded the paper into a fortune teller familiar to middle school teachers across the US.

The students filled in the spaces with English words and English fortunes. “You will become the president of Benin.” “You will be the top of your class.” “You will marry the king of Savalou.”

During the break, the game caught on with students in the other classes. I ended up staying late to fold pieces of notebook paper for other kids. By the end of the morning, I had made 18 cootie catchers.

I only hope I don’t have to confiscate any during my next class period.