Some of my Favorite Teaching Stories from this Year
At Christmas we were doing a “Guess the Hidden Gift” activity. The kids had to write three clues about their gift, and then draw a picture of it. As I wandered around the room I came to T, who was working hard for once. His three clues:
1) They’re red
2) They’re itchy
3) They’re on your body
“T…” I said, “Please tell me that your gift isn’t chicken pox.”
“Yeah! I gave them to my sister!”
The matching picture was pretty good, too.
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My student teacher did a great activity the other day where the kids made inchworms and used them to measure things around the room. It went really well—it’s fun when the practicum students nail a lesson. J comes up to have me tape his worm to his finger and says, “Mr. Rain, my worm is constipated.”
Earlier in my career I would have paused, asked J some leading questions, and discovered why constipation was on his mind. Now that I’m old and cranky, this is how it goes instead:
“Oh. Did he eat too much cheese?”
“Huh?”
“Some people say that makes them constipated, eating too much dairy stuff.”
“Oh. No, he’s just constipated.”
“Alrighty then. Back to work.”
And off he went, happy as could be, constipated worm perched on his finger, ready to do battle with the measurement system.
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You can tell a lot about a class by the read-aloud books that they pick. I start every year with some of the Junie B. Jones books, but this year I’ve got a pretty good group and though they could handle listening to a Ramona book. The vocabulary’s quite a bit more challenging, the books are far longer, and the pacing is slower, but the stories are just as meaningful to the kids today as they were when they were written in the ‘50s and ‘60s. I read Ramona the Pest a few months ago and then let them vote on what we’d read next; Ramona the Brave was an overwhelming winner.
The other day Ramona scrunched up Susan’s owl, and now she was talking with her mother and father about it. As I’m reading W raises his hand.
“Yes, W?”
“Mr. Thinker, when did you get a nose ring?”
“W, honey, I don’t have a nose ring.”
“Then what’s that round thing in your nose?”
“I’m guessing it’s probably a booger, kiddo.”
Class: “EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”
Then one of the other kids jumps in, “I can see a bunch of hair up there, too!”
Bastards.
1) They’re red
2) They’re itchy
3) They’re on your body
“T…” I said, “Please tell me that your gift isn’t chicken pox.”
“Yeah! I gave them to my sister!”
The matching picture was pretty good, too.
My student teacher did a great activity the other day where the kids made inchworms and used them to measure things around the room. It went really well—it’s fun when the practicum students nail a lesson. J comes up to have me tape his worm to his finger and says, “Mr. Rain, my worm is constipated.”
Earlier in my career I would have paused, asked J some leading questions, and discovered why constipation was on his mind. Now that I’m old and cranky, this is how it goes instead:
“Oh. Did he eat too much cheese?”
“Huh?”
“Some people say that makes them constipated, eating too much dairy stuff.”
“Oh. No, he’s just constipated.”
“Alrighty then. Back to work.”
And off he went, happy as could be, constipated worm perched on his finger, ready to do battle with the measurement system.
You can tell a lot about a class by the read-aloud books that they pick. I start every year with some of the Junie B. Jones books, but this year I’ve got a pretty good group and though they could handle listening to a Ramona book. The vocabulary’s quite a bit more challenging, the books are far longer, and the pacing is slower, but the stories are just as meaningful to the kids today as they were when they were written in the ‘50s and ‘60s. I read Ramona the Pest a few months ago and then let them vote on what we’d read next; Ramona the Brave was an overwhelming winner.
The other day Ramona scrunched up Susan’s owl, and now she was talking with her mother and father about it. As I’m reading W raises his hand.
“Yes, W?”
“Mr. Thinker, when did you get a nose ring?”
“W, honey, I don’t have a nose ring.”
“Then what’s that round thing in your nose?”
“I’m guessing it’s probably a booger, kiddo.”
Class: “EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!”
Then one of the other kids jumps in, “I can see a bunch of hair up there, too!”
Bastards.
posted by Ryan at 2:19 PM
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