On Friday I was in an elementary school classroom for 3 hours, meaning I've spent at least 6 total hours in that class this quarter. I love those kids, but I had a really hard time connecting to them. And now I'm bummed. :(
Part of the problem was that the class was in absolute chaos for most of the day. The teacher realizes that the class has a variety of students at different reading and math levels, so she divides the class into sections. Thus, a third of the class is working on one thing while the other two thirds are doing something completely different. Then, one part of the class will finish and run around while others are still working. Pretty soon, one group is running around killing time, another is working on spelling, and another group is taking a math test. Let me tell you, those kids do not want to do much of anything quietly. Furthermore, as soon as I figure out how to help a group of kids with a reading assignment, another reading group needs help, but their assignment is totally different, so I have to figure out the answer to a puzzle about a story I never read. Most of the time I feel pretty useless.
When I can't help them with their classwork, I walk around and try to chat with the kids about various things, but they don't seem like they want to talk to me; they want to do their own things with their own friends. How the heck do I reach these kids?
I left the school feeling pretty lousy about how I didn't reach most of them. Then I started thinking about what I would do with them if I was their teacher. I wouldn't allow for such chaos, for one thing. Because I'm the bad guy trying to get the kids to do their work rather than draw pictures and throw markers at each other, they would rather me not be there. Basically, the kids just want to play. And I understand that. School's boring. When I'm a teacher, I'll try to make the kids want to do the work. Easier said than done, though. It just seems like there needs to be more appeal in doing the work than in goofing off whenever possible.
Maybe I'm portraying this classroom incorrectly. These kids are very smart, and many of the students were trying very hard. But because of the chaos and confusion, few students were focused on finishing their work. After 15 minutes of struggling, they were ready to be done.
Okay, so how am I going to reach these kids next week? I definitely won't try to prevent them from being hyper elementary school kids. Last time I tried that, some kids got into a shoving match which I couldn't break up because I couldn't touch them. It was the teacher who yelled at them to get them to stop; that's her job, not mine. When I'm a teacher, I'll be the one in charge of keeping order in the classroom. But now, I'll be there to manage the kids that need help with the school work. Plus, the kids that were goofing off were the ones that had a pretty good grasp on the work they were doing.
I've been thinking about the management and organization of this classroom. There will always be several different groups of kids at varying levels in any classroom. How am I going to challenge the kids that are ahead and help the kids that are behind? Dividing up the work seems like a logical solution, but then the risk is of dividing up the class into "smarter" and "dumber." This is going on in the classroom where I volunteer, and the kids at higher level rub their intelligence in the faces of the kids that are behind. The kids are disrespectful in general. I can talk all I want about how I'll manage kids in my own classroom and how I'll do away with all disrespect and chaos while forming a utopia in the classroom, but I know it probably won't happen. I guess where my skills are lacking is in discipline. Psh, I know I'm lacking in discipline skills. But again, this is not my place to discipline kids.
Okay, my rant is over.
-Elie
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