We'd had a particularly loquacious morning and so I was deliriously happy that our afternoon history lesson was an edpuzzle (more on this resource in another blog but the short version is that it is a video lesson with an embedded quiz--the kids put on headphones, listen to / watch a video and answer questions silently). We had the normal getting started chaos with slow computers, misspelled websites and other normal misadventures but soon everyone was settled and working and then it started. At first is was just a single finger tap: tap, tap, tap.....rather quiet and I chose to accept it for what it was, a thinking tick, and ignore it...then one of the boys started tapping his toe...then someone else started turning a pencil over-and-over-and-over...then someone else started popping their lips...another started to hum quietly and soon the room was overflowing with repetitive thinking noises and I was approaching insanity. I finally gave in and started making the rounds: putting this one's pencil on the desk, laying a hand on that one's shoulder and generally quieting them one-by-one. Once again peace reigned......for all of two minutes and then the toe started to tap again. All I could do was shake my head and think; "whack-a-student, you're just playing whack-a-student."
Last year a fellow teacher walked into lunch and declared, "I feel like I'm at the carnival playing that game where things pop up and you hit them with a mallet and make them go back down again. What's that called?" "Whack-A-Mole?" "That's it! I feel like I play whack-a-student all day long; I get one to sit down and start to work and another pops up." This year has definitely felt like a year of whack-a-student in my classroom. It's not that this group is particularly badly behaved, they really don't do anything out of the ordinary, it's more that there are more of them than usual and they have a lot to say...about everything not related to school.....all the time.....and when they aren't saying something they are making noises. This past Tuesday was a perfect example.
We'd had a particularly loquacious morning and so I was deliriously happy that our afternoon history lesson was an edpuzzle (more on this resource in another blog but the short version is that it is a video lesson with an embedded quiz--the kids put on headphones, listen to / watch a video and answer questions silently). We had the normal getting started chaos with slow computers, misspelled websites and other normal misadventures but soon everyone was settled and working and then it started. At first is was just a single finger tap: tap, tap, tap.....rather quiet and I chose to accept it for what it was, a thinking tick, and ignore it...then one of the boys started tapping his toe...then someone else started turning a pencil over-and-over-and-over...then someone else started popping their lips...another started to hum quietly and soon the room was overflowing with repetitive thinking noises and I was approaching insanity. I finally gave in and started making the rounds: putting this one's pencil on the desk, laying a hand on that one's shoulder and generally quieting them one-by-one. Once again peace reigned......for all of two minutes and then the toe started to tap again. All I could do was shake my head and think; "whack-a-student, you're just playing whack-a-student."
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AuthorI've been teaching since 2000 and love what I do! Archives
May 2018
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