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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Last year I was happily teaching a small group in my procedure driven first grade class. I glanced up expecting to see my proud, independent first graders busily working away. Instead, what met my eyes was one of my boys SHAMPOOING with hand soap! Apparently, he had gotten glue in his hair and was 'taking care of it'. I quickly switched gears to whole group instruction on exactly how much is 'too much' hand soap while I rinsed his head -beauty shop style- in our classroom sink.
The moral of this story: you can never have too many procedures. And NEVER turn your back on six year olds!
Teri Hamilton- Kansas City
A few years ago, our school had an open door policy, which meant parents could come to your class at anytime, no appointment, just show up. Bad, I know. One day it was Sherri's birthday (name changed) and her dad appeared at the door with a rectangular Barbie birthday cake. I was caught off guard, took the cake mainly so I could just resume teaching, and her dad left. Mind you, he brought NO OTHER SUPPLIES (e. g. napkins, plates, forks). I did not even have a knife to cut the cake with. Not wanting to disappoint the little birthday girl, I borrowed a plastic knife from a neighboring teacher and procured the school's "brown paper towels" so the kids would have somewhere to put their cake. Later on, we sang "Happy Birthday" and the birthday babe told me she wanted the piece in the middle with her name on it with Barbie next to it. I cut the cake and began traveling around with it, giving out pieces around the edges first. After about five kids got served, the cake became unbalanced and, to my horror, I DROPPED the entire thing on a little boy's head and jeans. Everyone gasped and my mouth dropped open, aghast at what I had done. I apologized profusely to everyone and began cleaning the boy up. After school, I immediately left and spent $17 on a cupcake "cake" to replace the one I had destroyed and spoke with Sherri's incensed mother, who did not readily forgive me, even after I tried to make amends. (BTW, I never heard anything from the little boy's mom. I guess she just washed him and his clothing and let it go. I love that!)
Lessons learned: Many! I approached the administration about the "open door" policy, and within a few months, major changes were in place that helped make our school better and safer. I was also instrumental in changing the birthday cake policy–no cakes, just cupcakes, treat bags, etc.
I try not to "travel" around with anything that can tip over on kids; also, that it's okay to convey to my class my sorrow for the accident. I now try to extend patience to my own childrens' teachers, remembering this horrible disaster.
I think even though it was such an embarrassing situation, I tried to teach my class that I am human, accidents happen, we should do our best to make amends, ask forgiveness, and finally to forgive ourselves.
I love your webiste and check it often for ideas!
As a first year teacher, you always tend to try things you've seen before without really knowing if they will work for you. In my first year, I came up with a list of classroom jobs with my first graders and assigned each child a job. They all drew pictures of their jobs which I pasted onto cute colorful envelopes and then I put the children's names on little popsicle sticks and place each stick in the child's job. It looked so cute and organized and community oriented.
It was a disaster. The kids used our 5 minute weekly "job" time to fool around. When we had a need for sweeping or watering the plants, or even taking the attendance to the office, I found myself asking different, more capable, children to help than those on the jobs list. This caused children to get upset and say "it's not fair, that's my job" (even though said child had just misbehaved). Our classroom jobs became a negative thing. Also, the kids weren't really helping me, and we all know that without a TA or para in the room, we NEED help!
Anyway, during my second year of teaching, we still made the list and the pictures of the classroom jobs together, but this time I didn't assign any names. I realized that I wanted all of the children to be able to do all of the jobs at some point. I wanted the classroom to run so smoothly and be so organized so that anyone could do any job. It works so much better for me. If I need someone to water the plants, I ask to see "who is excellent" which is a great motivator for the children. The kids also know that if they can't clean up safely, they can't help, end of story. I rarely have any problems with clean up or classroom organization anymore and the kids are a HUGE help to me.
They can deliver messages to any room (even the dreaded 5th floor), they can care for the plants, they can sweep the floor, clean the table (with my homemade non-toxic cleaner), organize the leveled library, straighten the tablecloths, etc. I also taught them how to do activities that require two people (they are quite little), like getting out the bin of math books. They can put flyers in the communication folders (they even know which ones go in Spanish and which ones have to be in English). They can even put the homework in the notebooks for me. They can even get in line for lunch without me and walk themselves half way if I'm busy dealing with something else. They can even do shared reading on their own if there is an emergency (like a little accident on the floor that I have to clean up).
It has gotten to the point where sometimes they just help out without even being asked. It's great. Everyone always asks me how I manage it without a para or assistant. I always say that 25 little helpers is better than one big one. I sometimes actually feel bad for my student teachers when I have them because the students know what to do better than they do.
After just completing my first year of teaching, I have learned MANY new things to do with classroom management. One of the most important being that if a student isn't sitting still in their seat doesn't mean that they aren't learning. I had a student in my class who I will never forget. The student was entertaining and always full of knowledge. This knowledge did not come to him while he was sitting still in his seat. He would often stand up, wander, lay down, and even spun circles from time to time. No matter what type of question was thrown at this student, he could answer it without a problem. He also could recall everything that was just said to the class. One of the funniest things this student enjoyed doing was making sounds into the fan in the classroom (no a/c). During a few times (thankfully not during lessons), he went to the fan and talked like Darth Vadar. Let me just say, he is one student I will not forget and a student who taught me to relax and enjoy what I was doing and to accept the individuality of each student!