Uncategorized | Aug 1, 2009
Embarrassing stories AND free stuff. Yep, this post has it all.
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Embarrassing stories AND free stuff. Yep, this post has it all.
By Angela Watson
Most teachers enter the profession completely unprepared for all the complexities of running a classroom. I think at some point, we’ve all been faced with an unforseen challenge and wondered incredulously, Geez, I never knew I was supposed to plan for or anticipate this issue: how am I expected to have a solution for a problem I didn’t know existed? Personally, I’m astounded by the sheer number of basic classroom management lessons I had to learn the hard way:
-Communicating effectively with parents requires a concerted effort and a much greater time investment than I’d assumed. Once I carefully scheduled eight parent conferences back-to-back and stayed at school until 6 pm (by myself–which was perhaps the dumbest part of the whole scenario) and was furious when every single parent was a no-show. Why the poor turn out? Because I’d scheduled the conferences two weeks prior and didn’t know I needed to provide forty-seven notes, emails, and phone messages as a follow-up reminder. Now that I’ve learned to send notices via every form of communication except sky writing and smoke signals, my no-show rate has become much more reasonable.
-Letting third graders keep scissors in their desks is generally a bad idea. It took the following catastrophes for me to reach that conclusion: one child’s impromptu trimming of her own bangs without the benefit of a mirror; a boy’s decision to snip two braids off a girl’s elaborate and expensive style that took five hours to create; and a third child’s unexplainable propensity toward slicing the file folder centers I spent three weeks making. That was all in one semester. After that, I decided to keep the scissors in one communal area and distribute them only when needed (which was as infrequently as possible with that group, believe me). Even now, I still have to be extra cautious during scissor activities, and have a responsible kid do a scissor count after they’ve been collected. Failure to do so may result in some little sneakster using his scissors to either trim textbook page edges, sharpen pencils using the blade edge (!!), or carve the word ‘fart’ into his desktop.
-Photocopies MUST be made as far in advance as possible. There is nothing more disappointing than getting a brainstorm and working all evening on a fabulous activity for the next day’s lesson, only to be stuck assigning something boring from the textbook because there’s either no paper or all the copiers are down, AGAIN. I once had an amazing math activity with Halloween candy that I couldn’t get copied for FIVE WEEKS. I busted out the worksheet on Valentine’s Day and told the kids to replace the words black and orange with red and pink and change all the pumpkins into hearts. Needless to say, the kids weren’t buying it. Although, since their behavior was top notch the whole day in anticipation of eating the candy afterward, all was not completely lost. And I picked out my Cinco de Mayo activities the following morning.
So tell me: what classroom management lesson did YOU learn the hard way? Your story can be short or long, funny or serious, embarrassing or matter-of-fact…just share the true tale of a mistake or misunderstanding you experienced while trying to manage a classroom.
Leave your story as a comment on this post. I’ll select a winner on Wednesday, August 5th, and send out a free copy of my book The Cornerstone: Classroom Management That Makes Teaching More Effective, Efficient, and Enjoyable. Inside, I explain all the stuff I had to learn from trial and error–managing small groups, organizing materials, getting kids to follow basic procedures, handling test pressure–so that you can learn specific steps for creating the learning environment you’ve always wanted. It’s a practical guide that will show you how to construct a self-running classroom that frees you to TEACH.
The book will ship via Priority Mail so the winner should have it in plenty of time to read before the new school year begins (unless you’re in one of those schools that’s already starting back, in which case, I can only offer you my deepest sympathy).
I’m looking forward to your stories! Thanks for sharing!
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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My first experience with interesteing behavior was my very first day of student teaching. After this experience I really wondered if I was doing the right thing!! I was with a teacher who had been teaching for many years, in fact she was close to retiring. She was awesome, very energetic and spent lots of time with lessons and everything. I learned a lot from her. We were in kindergarten and it was the first day of school. Kindergarten was only a half of day and this was the first session. The kids were sitting on the floor. The teacher was up front on a chair, she had a dress on. As she is trying to teach kindergarteners the proper way to sit on the floor for morning news. A little boy crawls up to the front of the room, crawls under her dress and says in a very loud voice, "I smell you!" I was horrified, the teacher was horrified and in total shock. She tried to get the little boy out of the middle of the group, which was really hard because he was stubborn. Eventually she got him back by me and I pretty much had to sit with him that day to keep in on track. That was an interesting year because the behaviors just got worse. Lots of problems in the home. We ended up having a behavior specialist in the class with us for most of the year, because there was things happening that were far beyond our control. The best thing that I can say about this experience is that I was NOT by myself. My cooperating teacher was wonderful through and I think because of how she handeled the situation and helped me throught it is what keep me going!
During my internship I decided to make Oobleck with 4th graders in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday. Oobleck is a Non-Newtonian fluid made out of cornstarch and water. It is also a HUGE mess when you don't have a whole day to spend on a science lesson. I gave thorough expectations, a thought guided workseeet, and I even made the activitiy into a contest to see which group of students could keep their floor area the cleanest. Needless to say all the students went crazy with Oobleck and the classroom floor was a mess. The students wanted to take their creations home so my supervising teacher and I spent time labeling zip loc bags with each student's name while they cleaned up their desk area. This took away from our discussion time but the students had fun. I, on the other hand, did not have much fun with the time I spent after school vacuuming so the custodian would not have to do it. I have learned some valuable lessons:
1) when it comes to messy science projects to split them into two or more days so there is time for instructions, comprehensive discussions, and clean up.
2) I also learned that putting newspaper not only ON TOP of the desk but on the floor would have been ideal too.
and
3)Oobleck is not meant to be taken home, it goes bad the next day and the parents were not happy with it when their child told them not to throw it down the sink because it would clog up the drain. =)
I have only been teaching three years so I'm sure there is still a lot for me to learn in my teaching career. However, I've already learned a lot in these three years. One of my biggest lessons is about preparation. One evening I searched online all evening trying to figure out what we were going to do the following day. Things had changed big time with my lesson plans and I needed a great one day lesson. After much research, I finally found a great lab to do with my students. I even had all the materials that I needed in my classroom. I printed it off, ran copies the next morning, and got everything ready. The students got started and about half way through this not so clean lab, we realized it didn't work. I needed a specific kind of dirt. Go figure. With that and a few similar situations before, I learned always always do the lab before you have students to do. This allows you to work through all the kinks.
Over the years, I have come to realize a few very important lessons regarding field trips. One year, we had a dump of snow on the day that we were to go to the skating rink for a "fun skate" before Christmas break. The bus was only slightly late due to the snowfall, but parents started picking their students up early because of it. By the time we finally got to the rink (after the bus sliding a few times and getting caught behind other cars/trucks)we all took a grateful breath…only to find out that the rink had thought we weren't going to show and had sent their staff home. The kids did get to skate for a little while, but then we ended up calling the rest of the parents to come and get them (because the bus was stuck in a ditch). Needless to say, I learned to call ahead in unforseen weather, NOT go on a field trip in a snowstorm, and always pack snowboots just in case.
The second lesson was learned when I asked for parent drivers for a field trip that would take about 45 minutes to get to. I had them all fill out a driver's record (as for the school policy) and gave them directions and specific instructions of where they were to meet me. I don't know what happened (I guess I should have really made sure that ALL the parents actually were listening), but one of the cars ended up stopping to get ice cream and gas (and being 30 minutes late for the trip) AND then got lost on the way back as well (due again to getting gas and a 'treat' for the kids in her car). Amazing to me since we were all travelling together on the way back….the funny thing is this happened another time as well (and then another time for the teacher the following year).
lesson learned: some parents should not be drivers for field trips, and others really need to have things clarified for them (or have you go with them).
So, it's not always the kids that need the management, but the teacher and the parents as well.
Like one of the previous posters, I had a bad habit of NOT checking out the items for sharing during Show and Tell. Needless to say, I learned the hard way–one young girl brought a vibrator for sharing. Luckily, it was eventually noticed just before it was to go on public display. Now when an excited student comes up and wants to share his or her Show and Tell item, I will always oblige!