I am also learning the, well, interesting things that happen to teachers. As
most of you know, I am now a technology teacher for Kindergarten through 5th
grade. It's a huge career change for me and I really love it (except the
money, but that's another story). In the fall I'll move to the Technology
Magnet high school (more on that in another off-topic post one of these
days, for the nerds on the list).
For example, yesterday I was teaching a Kindergarten class. This one girl
just wouldn't stay on task (the outrageously difficult task of doing a
puzzle -- with two other people to help her). She comes over and complains
that she has a bug bite.
And proceeds to pull down her pants and underwear to show me.
Luckily there are other adult teachers in the room :)
Needless to say I had her pull them right back up.
Today was hilarious, though. I'm truly a mean-spirited teacher :). Since
this is Monday, I have new classes (I teach a different group of children,
from each grade, every week and get them back every five weeks). In my
fourth and fifth grade classes, I have them working in math projects --
they're pretty hard to accomplish and doing them quickly shows real skill.
The 4th graders compete with the 5th graders, which is fun in itself. On
Mondays I have them work with a partner.
One of the reasons I was hired was to bring 'real world' experiences to the
job. So, to start off the lesson, I told them they would be working with a
partner. There was much shifting around so that they would be sitting next
to their friends -- which was quite handy to me. I discussed how when they
start working, they will often have to work with people they don't like. If
they can't do it, they'll end up losing their job. I then explain that I
appreciated their letting me know who they would LIKE to work with, since it
made it easier for me NOT to assign them together. Imagine the looks on
their faces.
I then proceeded to try to make the WORST possible pairings that I could
find. First on my list of objectionable pairings were any two that I
thought might actually like each other (I do boy-girl pairs). In 4th and
5th, liking someone is new to them and seems to involve intense hatred.
Then I just filled out the teams with mortal enemies.
We have a reward system, so if they work well together, I give them reward
points. MOST teams fussed for a few minutes, then got lost in the intensity
of the competition and getting rewards and did well together. A few,
particularly in fifth grade, didn't. Really didn't. They got private chats
about how they wouldn't cut it in the real world if they couldn't overcome
their differences.
One pair of fifth graders were the loudest complainers when paired
together -- and ended up beating all teams in what they accomplished. Their
anomosity lasted about 20 seconds once they got excited about what they were
doing.
I fully expect them to name their first child after me.....
Tom
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Hawkins" <rhawkin3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 5:29 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] Self-portraits - was Camera Frinzy!!
> Tom,
>
> Truly hilarious the things that kids bring to school. I once had a student
> bring in their fathers broken dentures. They wantes to know if I could
> repair them...........Yes , I did and they were pleased with the repair
> work.
>
>
> Rich
>
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|