Search This Blog

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Herding Cats…..

Just when I think that I’m starting to know how to handle classroom kids, along comes this group of 1st graders. Maybe it was the rainy day, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Christmas season, the phase of the moon or maybe it was me. Who knows?

The “HOMEWORK” trick didn’t work this time. As soon as I got them to quiet down, the commotion level started up again.

It was a continual procession of requests for drinks of water, bathroom breaks and so many defective pencils that somehow could not remain sharpened for 3 minutes at a time that I lost count.

Turn your back for one second and they’d sneak out to the common area to search their backpacks for snacks and water or out the back door to the playground heading for the alternate bathroom.

It was like trying to herd 19 very active cats. (If you’ve tried it, you know what I mean.)

It was a VERY tiring day.

I did manage to funnel them through the day’s lesson plan assignments, but it was clear most of them were somewhere else today. I’m not sure what actual learning they accomplished today.

No comments: