Advent and the White Board Jungle
At school this week, I prepared the kids in my class for the Advent season by reading a story I bought at the local Bible bookstore. It is about a German pastor and his family's Advent calendar traditions. The kids nodded knowingly when the book's characters suggested we love one another and give as Jesus gave, but what really captured their imaginations were the daily Advent treats the pastor's son received in the story. After the story, we had a brain storming session about how we could provide enough daily treats for eleven people. The suggestion that I buy 11 toys per day was thrown out. Having everyone bring small candies made it to the top of our list...though Matt doesn't eat candy and Sophia prefers carrots. I'm sure the discussion will continue tomorrow.
I'm glad we will be celebrating a more Christ centered holiday in school this month. My class needs to learn much more about giving and loving others. This has been a week of classroom interpersonal turmoil. The combatants are two girls and a boy. One of the little gals reminds me of those loud, adorably cute little girls in cartoons. She didn't get enough sleep the previous night and so bounced all day between goofy laughter, enthusiastic and loud opinions and pitiful sobbing. I was patient, but not very sympathetic. At recess, I calmly advised L. to expend some of her energy. She ran and jumped and twirled and danced across the playground like a young rabbit in springtime. Yes, she's very cute. However, during this time of relative freedom from adult supervision, she was apparently compelled to insult N. and S. by bluntly telling them she didn't like them, their games "stank" and she wasn't their friend. When they reacted negatively to these insults, she burst into tears because they didn't want to play with her and be her friend. Duh! It was a great example of "As you sow so shall you reap".
Yesterday was not a good day for me either. I was tired, had a coffee headache and wasn't in the mood for foolishness. When I told L. she needed to stay in her seat and do her Language Arts worksheet and she said she didn't want to, I said, "When an teacher or adult you trust asks you to do something reasonable then you must do it". I then warned her if she was sassy again she'd have to have a time out. In response, she burst into tears. Knowing these were crocodile tears, I believe I responded in an unloving and "unteacherly" manner by saying, "Oh, brother!" Not necessarily a good choice of words...but an honest response.
Today was a better day, though once again a dreaded half-day ending with a staff meeting. I probably got an hour of instruction in and had to hurry to finish our art project. That was pretty frustrating. After the staff meeting, I decided to put up my hallway display while the rest of the staff slugged it out at an accreditation meeting. As I looked around I realized everyone had put up beautiful holiday displays with pictures of Mother Mary, the stable, Bible verses and a Christmas tree made of carefully traced and cut out hands. I have decided to do my board about the rain forest. We've been studying animal groups (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians...I threw in insects) and I wanted to display the kid's cool amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects collages. We plan to make some more mammals and birds, cut them all out and combine them into a giant, hallway collage. The challenge now is how I'm going to also tie this idea into a recent art docent color theory lesson (I promised the docent I'd display the 11 paper plates painted like rainbows. Make them into hot air balloons flying over the rain forest?) and relate all this to Christ and Christmas.
Hmmm?
I'm glad we will be celebrating a more Christ centered holiday in school this month. My class needs to learn much more about giving and loving others. This has been a week of classroom interpersonal turmoil. The combatants are two girls and a boy. One of the little gals reminds me of those loud, adorably cute little girls in cartoons. She didn't get enough sleep the previous night and so bounced all day between goofy laughter, enthusiastic and loud opinions and pitiful sobbing. I was patient, but not very sympathetic. At recess, I calmly advised L. to expend some of her energy. She ran and jumped and twirled and danced across the playground like a young rabbit in springtime. Yes, she's very cute. However, during this time of relative freedom from adult supervision, she was apparently compelled to insult N. and S. by bluntly telling them she didn't like them, their games "stank" and she wasn't their friend. When they reacted negatively to these insults, she burst into tears because they didn't want to play with her and be her friend. Duh! It was a great example of "As you sow so shall you reap".
Yesterday was not a good day for me either. I was tired, had a coffee headache and wasn't in the mood for foolishness. When I told L. she needed to stay in her seat and do her Language Arts worksheet and she said she didn't want to, I said, "When an teacher or adult you trust asks you to do something reasonable then you must do it". I then warned her if she was sassy again she'd have to have a time out. In response, she burst into tears. Knowing these were crocodile tears, I believe I responded in an unloving and "unteacherly" manner by saying, "Oh, brother!" Not necessarily a good choice of words...but an honest response.
Today was a better day, though once again a dreaded half-day ending with a staff meeting. I probably got an hour of instruction in and had to hurry to finish our art project. That was pretty frustrating. After the staff meeting, I decided to put up my hallway display while the rest of the staff slugged it out at an accreditation meeting. As I looked around I realized everyone had put up beautiful holiday displays with pictures of Mother Mary, the stable, Bible verses and a Christmas tree made of carefully traced and cut out hands. I have decided to do my board about the rain forest. We've been studying animal groups (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians...I threw in insects) and I wanted to display the kid's cool amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects collages. We plan to make some more mammals and birds, cut them all out and combine them into a giant, hallway collage. The challenge now is how I'm going to also tie this idea into a recent art docent color theory lesson (I promised the docent I'd display the 11 paper plates painted like rainbows. Make them into hot air balloons flying over the rain forest?) and relate all this to Christ and Christmas.
Hmmm?
Labels: Ruminations, Teaching
posted by Michelle Coder | 1:08 AM
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