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| July 01, 2006 |
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I noticed that there was a bitter tone to my entries lately, so while I would love to rant about an email I received today, I will leave that for the end. Anyway, I am happy for the most part because I got a lot of errands done today. For those of you who know where to go, go read about what I did today. I'll talk about it on here later. Positive things to focus on:
* almost all my auctions sold (poor stuffed animals!) I have been snapping a lot of pics of the kids. I wish I could post them because they are all so adorable. Remember Z, the one who would make me want to bang my head against the wall? He has such a beautiful smile. In other news, I covered for another 3rd teacher for the last hour of school. His class is notorious. I sucked it up, knowing that children smell fear more keenly than dogs. (I swear!) They were...interesting. At one point, I remember thinking, "gee, my mentor must hate me." She was going to cover, but at the last minute made me do it. I must say though, I kept calm. It was different than when I spent my short stint in 2nd grade. In fact, they share space with the 2nd graders, and I found myself longingly looking over there..."I'll trade ya!" Heh. I became hardass Jenn today though. One kid was messing around and I kneeled down, looked him in the eye and said, "You know what's great about working with (mentor)? You and I have the same recess. So you can do it now or you can do it with me later. Make a choice." Now, some people swear I have this magic wand. But I think I just lay it out there. I never raise my voice, I don't get mad. I just give them a choice: do it the way I want, or there will be a consequence you will not like. Is this a novel concept? Really...I want to know. For instance, I have really busted ass trying to get our lines in good shape. These kids were all over the place. I was embarrassed to take these kids anywhere. It would take us so long because I decided that it wasn't going to fly. Kids would be up and down the hallway, the last kid a tiny speck on the horizon, he's that far away. On the left of the hall, on the right, in the middle. I had one kid who would slide along the wall, as if his side had been glued against the wall. What the hell is this? I could see this if this was like September, and these were pre-K or K. But not kids about to be 4th graders. I knew what tack I had to take. Negative consequences got me nowhere. Even when we would walk back to the class for afternoon recess: the whole "you're wasting recess time" did not get me far. That was plan A. Plan B was suck it up and offer an incentive. So I started the minutes plan. I made 'em a deal they can't refuse (or at least that I prayed they would not refuse) - they could earn up to 10 minutes extra recess a day for doing two things. 1. refers to all things physical: are they in one line, facing front, on the right side ("Are we in England?" I remind them...lol) 2. is being quiet. Well, we worked on these two concepts, I reinforced their behavior with the extra recess and then starting weaning them off of the plan. By now I don't give extra recess. We get in the hall and I say, "I'm looking for one (and they snap to attention like little soldiers)...I'm looking for two (and the hall is dead silent). You won't believe the compliments we get. At first my mentor was getting comments about her intern and her class. Maybe people thought it wouldn't last. Lately we get comments when we are in the hall. The 6th grade teachers, all the other 3rd grade teachers, the counselor even. It makes them so proud. It makes me proud of them. But why are people acting like this was rocket science? *shrug* I forget where exactly I was going with this, but it's late and I need to go to bed.
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| said Jenn on June 03, 2003 at 11:08 p.m. |