Each time I sub for 4th grade, I feel like I spend my entire day on facebook or twitter. There is not one student who doesn't feel the need to update me on their life status.
"Mrs. Turney... I didn't finish my homework last night," They will tell me. The problem is, I don't know how I'm supposed to respond to them...so we usually just stand around with blank stares in our eyes before they decide to sit back down.
Sometimes I respond with "Oh" other times "Ok"or "huh" When I get really agitated I may respond with "and..." or "so..." but most of the time I just tell them to go sit back down.
Some of the greatest, most random status updates I've recieved are:
"I coulnd't find the word seemingly in the dictionary so I didn't do my home work"
"I cut this paper wrong."
"I got really sweaty at recess cause it was hot and I was runing around."
The problem with these and other such status updates, is that the students approach me with these updates as if they are problems. They don't know what the problem is exactly, they may want a solution to the problem or may just want an answer. Students these days seem to have a difficult time formulating thoughts and getting what they want, rather, they look to adults as problem solvers and the be all end all of solutions.
Had the student said to me, "Mrs. Turney, at recess I was running around a lot and I got pretty hot. I need a drink to cool off." Then I would be able to respond appropriatly with an affirmitive answer. The students who do not come up with solutions themselves seem to have a harder time dealing with life than the other students. Some students take the initiative and just get things done, which I appreciate. They look at their hands and notice that they are dirty and realize that they are bleeding. What do they do...they go over to the sink and wash their hands, then they sanitize the cut and bandage it. Other students look at their hands see that they are dirty and bloody and come up to the teacher and say "look what happend."
This mentality inhibates the children mentally and physically. They need to learn to solve problems. All the resources are avalible in the classroom. They have sinks and drinking fountains, they have pencils and sharpeners and paper and garbage cans and desks and first aid kits and computers in many of them and dictionaries and formulas and a teacher, but the only resource they utilize is the teacher.
Yesterday I told the students "You have 50 minutes on the computer...you can either do your Nevada projects, or you can go and do ANYTHING YOU WANT on Study Island." One student askes "can we play games on Study Island." I repeated: "you can do anything you want on study island." "But can we do games?" "You can chose to do whatever you want on Study Island." "But can we do games." This is where I quit responding to her. She sat perplexed for about ten minutes until she looked around and saw all her classmates were playing games and decided to join in. You may be thinking, "that was pretty harsh, a simple yes would have answered her question." Perhaps, but I try to teach the kids to think for themselves, to use cues to figure things out.
Sigh.
1 comment:
I would have been flabbergasted too if my teacher told me I could go somewhere on the computer that involved games. I'd try to get some kind of confirmation, that or pinch myself.
It's fun to imagine though maybe there was more behind it. Like a parent telling them "The day Mrs. Turney lets you play games in class, you can have that iPod". :-)
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