From: Sheila.King@f315.n103.z1.fidonet.org (Sheila King)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.teacher
Subject: 02/RE: MISSED MESSAGE ON
Date: 23 Jan 93 03:06:00 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:103/315 - Castle of the Four , Diamond Bar CA

continued to Amarit:

-> If a student writes on a desk, I sometimes get the student to
-> transfer it to paper, if it's art, and then I'll wipe the desk off
-> while he/she sits there... I'd also strike up a conversation with the
-> kid, and not really make him feel as though I'm trying to punish him.
-> It works...I'll talk to him about the whole writing on the desk
-> thing, but it generally gets to be a conversation that doesn't
-> revolve around the "offense" and more than likely, the student won't
-> do it again, won't have to say after class against his will, and I'll
-> get the desk clean.  Once, while I was teaching, a student was
-> writing on a desk, and I made a paper airplane while teaching.  I
-> threw the plane to the kid and told him to use that instead...the
-> next day, he noticed that his desk was clean, and that I had put his
-> "doodle" up on the wall...it was pretty cool for him...and for me
-> too.  I knew that he had learned something, because he always doodled
-> in pencil after that :)

That is really neat, and I'm glad that you have such a way of handling
things that works for you. But not all teachers can be "cool". Each
teacher has a different style that works for him or her, and that's OK.
I don't think that artwork thing would work for me. Besides, what do you
do about the obscene words that occassionally appear on the desks? And
please don't think that I have never cleaned the desks off myself, even
during class time while my students are right there. Because I have.

-> Have you ever bothered to ask what the student would LIKE to do
-> instead?

Sometimes. I have let them know that if they have something else they
really feel that they need to do, they can ask permission. But usually I
prefer to see them work on the math, since I can go around the room and
see if they understand the problems or not. That way, if the student is
having any difficulty we get it ironed out before they go home, so that
hopefully the homework assignment will go smoother. I know that the
other classes are also important. But I can't really help them with
their Latin, or Chemistry. So I'd rather have them work on math.

-> I've taken a class out to the yard because someone wanted to play
-> basketball...there I taught them simple mathematics that most seniors
-> in high school don't even get a grasp on!  These were 7th graders.

Congratulations on such a successful lesson. I've had a few of those
myself (well, all of mine were inside the classroom...).

-> No, I didn't get them to do their lesson THAT day,

This happens to me occassionally, too, and it doesn't ruin my life.

-> and by the end of the year, I didn't finish EVERYTHING I was supposed
-> to do,

I never have yet, and I've been teaching for 10 years.

-> Sheila, please don't take offense to what I'm saying.

Well, since you ask me not to, I will try to do that. But really, your
messages have a tone of me being a poor misguided black sheep of a
teacher, who scares all her students, and they hate her, and they hate
her class and don't understand the teacher's reasons for doing anything.
And that just isn't the way it is in my class. And you think that your
way is apparently the only correct way to handle a class, when it is
not. It is a very good way, and it is a way that works for you. But it
doesn't mean that other ways don't work too, and that you can't still
have a different way of managing your class and ALSO have a good
relationship with your students. I love my students. They are the reason
I teach.

-> I'm not known as a strict teacher...I'm known as a kid.

Well, I could expand on mine...I'm known as a strict teacher, who's
pretty nice, teaches a challenging course, but explains things pretty
well.

Sheila
coming to you from Diamond Bar, CA (in Los Angeles County)
                               

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