Sixth Grade Adventures: Over Too Soon

When I started this adventure, I had great hopes for the amount of time I would be able to work with these students. As it comes to a close, I can't believe I'm surprised that I was thwarted by testing. Today should have been my last time with the students. Instead, the students had standardized testing and test preparation.

I've planned with the teacher to come back on their last day of class to do some activities with them. At least I'll get the chance to say goodbye...

So I've learned a few major lessons from this experience:

1. No amount of excitement about a subject can replace good classroom management skills. Each time I arrived, the students would cheer and I'd hear shouts of "Yay drama!" Did this guarantee they'd pay attention and behave appropriately? Not on your life.

2. You never know what is going to actually work.

There were days I thought it wasn't working, that the students didn't get it, and definitely didn't like it. And then the next time I came the students would ask, "Hey are we going to ______ again? That was really cool!" Go figure.

3. Teachers love volunteers.

I thought I would be imposing going into someone else's classroom. I never imagined how excited a teacher would be to have help. Want to make a difference in education? Help a teacher out.

Sixth Grade Adventures: Pleasant Surprises...and not so pleasant ones

Today there was a sub when I came to work with the students. The teacher had warned me the night before, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened.

To begin--the pleasant surprise. In my second class, there is a girl who rarely takes our work seriously. Today, however, she shined.

It was a relatively simple warm-up called One to Five Jump. The facilitator shouts out a number between one and five. The students and facilitator then call back the number while moving to a different level. One is as close to the ground as you can get comfortably. Five is jumping up in the air. Two through four are in between. Once done in English a few times, students who know other languages are invited to teach the rest of the class to count from one to five in that language and then lead, calling out numbers between one and five in their language. It can be really exciting for students who speak Spanish to feel like they are teaching everyone else.

The first time I called out one, she was the first and only student to move and call out the number. I immediately complemented her and pointed the other students to her as a model of how to do the activity. For the rest of the class, she continued to perform well, and continued to be the first students to accomplish the goals of the activity. I complimented her periodically and congratulated her again at the end of class.

It was a remarkable change. It was just what I needed to see after the first class fiasco.

It was the perfect storm. The students next door were testing. We were too noisy. I gave the students a chance to go outside since they'd been trying to keep it down. As I gathered the students together in a small grassy area, a few of the boys were still dawdling around a table. I was in the process of bringing everyone together when all at once a boy started climbing up on top of the railing and another teacher walked by with her class. She yelled at the student to get down, asked who I was, then proceeded to chew me out for not watching him do something dangerous, being too noisy as other students tested, and basically being irresponsible...in front of my students. It was totally inappropriate and completely humiliating.

With all my authority undermined, I simply told the students that due to their behavior we were going back inside and we were done with drama for the day. In shaping student behavior, it is what happens during and immediately following behavior that has the greatest impact. I did not let what happened get me angry. I did not react emotionally. Once inside, I calmly told the students that I was a guest in their school. I was not paid to be there. At any time, if someone complained, I could be asked to not come back and that would be the end of my time with them. They were completely silent.

A short time later, I saw the principal walk into the classroom. I had seen her a few times before during the semester, so I knew immediately who she was. I sat at the desk in the back of the room and about had a heart attack when she came up and asked who I was. She wasn't there for me, but to check on a student that had been sent to the office earlier that day. I told her what happened, and she was furious that a teacher would do that in front of students.

Sixth Grade Adventures: Scenic Design

I thought I might see what happens when I bring a little art into our drama today. The plan was to have them work in groups to draw a location. Then using the amazing technology of iMovie, I'd take a picture of the students in front of a green backdrop (I love butcher paper) and superimpose them onto their design.

We began by talking about the story of Peter Pan. There are so many exciting locations for students to imagine. I decided to use the pirate ship location as a reward for the group that did the best at meeting classroom expectations. As expected, EVERYONE wanted to get the pirate ship. In the first class, it was pretty easy to select the group. They've been a lot more rowdy than the later class, which I was not expecting. The second class was so well behaved I had to put their groups in a hat and draw one out to get the pirate ship.

One student, we'll call him S, likes to draw, and was excited earlier in the year to show me some of his drawings in his sketchbook. I expected him to be the first student in the class to start drawing. Instead, he sat quietly and let the other members of his group draw. When I checked in and said I was looking forward to seeing what he was going to draw, he expressed little to no interest in drawing. I was a little shocked, but complimented him on what I had seen of his work before and walked away. Eventually, he picked up a pen and got started.

I had a few fun little classroom management moments today. I wanted to pause the students early in the process of sketching to give and ask for feedback. When I picked up the first group's drawing and asked the class what they thought was good and what they should keep working on, no one looked up. It was great that they were working and engaged. Let's celebrate that for a moment........ Okay, but I'm a teacher, and I need to help them learn how to make their work even better. So without saying anything, I went to each table and picked up everyone's papers. That got their attention. Then as a class, we reviewed each group's sketches so far and that went a lot smoother. I automatically did that with the second class and saved myself a lot of time and frustration.