Writer William Arthur Ward is accredited with the quote “curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” This is a quote that I really quite like. I like the imagery of lighting a candle and then it brings brightly and brilliantly. As I teacher I enjoy seeing the light burn brightly and brilliantly within my students. It’s an image, and idea, that I really try to stay true to when I plan activities for my classes. Sometimes I’m successful, and sometimes I’m not. 　Recently, though, we had aver successful activity in the 7th grade class. The students made groups, chose a country, and then chose a festival within that country to research. They would then be responsible for teaching new groups about their country and festival. I was firstly impressed with he range of countries the students chose. Of course we got the usual France and Italy, but we also some students who were interested in Ghana, and Tonga. They had 2 class periods to research, and put their ideas into English. Then, the third class period they would share with others what they had learned. I was really happy to see how motivated and invested the students were, and also how well they taught their new group mates about their research, especially since they were given no time to memorize and they were not allowed to read their research. 　Since they had been able to choose what to research and since they truly wanted to share what they had learned the activity was huge success and I’m sure the students will remember some of the country facts for a long time. This is another example of the authentic communication we value in our English classes.