The first two classes after three weeks off (two weeks vacation,
a third week to recover from vacation) were like night and day.
The 5th grade class preparation at the country
club school included all neatly stacked materials in the order needed.
A single page lesson plan succinctly stated that all I had
to do was monitor the class while trusted students handled everything from taking
attendance, conducting the morning meeting and some of the actual lesson instruction. The class required only minor orchestration
from me.
It was an amazing demonstration of twenty-eight well
organized, motivated, self-sufficient students.
My next day’s assignment in a 4th grade classroom
in the working class neighborhood school less than 5 miles away was the polar
opposite experience. Herding cats might be harder, but not by much.
Classroom prep for
the sub:
I needed a stapler. Found four empty staplers and one empty refill
box. I borrowed some from the classroom next door.
Warm-up activity instruction: Scan the warm-up book under
the doc reader until the kids stop saying “We done that one already!”
Get the laptop cart for the kids to use for their “city
reports”. When the time came, I was told that: “Subs aren’t allowed access to
the laptop carts”.
I called the school library and got permission to bring the
class over to use the library computers.
Student conduct:
Three boys, two girls kept the party atmosphere going for
the other twenty-eight kids in class.
Afterwards, I couldn’t help but wonder what differences
would result if these two teachers swapped classrooms for the year.
Could the 5th grade country club teacher repeat
the “miracle classroom” or would it devolve into much the same as it is now?
Could the obviously exhausted (I assume after 150 days with
these guys) 4th grade teacher duplicate the same motivational skill with
the same 5th grade population or would the class devolve into a six
hour, party day?
Is it nurture, nature or demographics?
3 comments:
I'd be interested to see the results of the switch!
I have wondered this exact same thing and I think it is mostly the teacher. Sure, the kids have a lot to do with it, but I find when I walk into a classroom that is a mess, the kids are a mess, regardless of what the demographics are. I also find the opposite to be true.
It's the teacher. I have subbed in many very low income schools and some teachers have their students trained & on their best behavior. You might have thought the Queen had arrived, instead of the lowly sub!
Same thing with high income areas..those students can be just as disrespectful and bratty as any other.
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