I have my largest art class on Thursdays this semester. A whopping 24 K-2 kids, half of whom are spoiled by their teachers and parents alike. Most of whom are high energy and teacher-intensive (note: favorite teaching word to describe students so far). I downed two large cups of strong coffee before leaving home for work.
Seven hours later, I'm still a little high on the caffeine.
However, it was a really good choice. I've only taught this class three times, and I haven't experienced any day with them WITHOUT having to remove a kid from the group. What is going on at this school? It's a well-off school too. The kids come from a nice, new development. 99.9% of them are white. Statistically speaking, these kids should be riding high on conformity and well-behaved-ness.
Taking the preemptive strike of consuming energy balls worked. I was up and running, handling actual teaching while quelling behaviors. Granted, I was going a bit too fast.
Still, I didn't appreciate the "helper" teacher interrupting me in the middle of teaching and telling me that though. That's what she's here for - to help with the kinders who are a little slower than the second graders. Do your job first, then you can talk to me about mine.
For example, a couple kids started whining about being tired and "done," showing me a half-colored piece of paper. This conversation occurred as I was circulating:
Student: I'm bored!
Me: You are?
Student: I want to stop [drawing/coloring] now.
Me: You want to stop because you are bored?
Student: Yes.
Me: Do you always stop when you are bored? (I lean over the kid and begin coloring parts that she skipped)
Student: Yes. I get bored when I do something for too long.
Me: Hm. Does that mean you'll stop breathing when you're bored of it? Eating when you're bored of that? Sleeping? Walking? Will you stop talking when you are bored? How about playing? Because it sounds like you need to stop a lot of things.
Student: .....
Me: (continues coloring bits and parts of her art) Are you bored of sitting? Will you stop sitting? But then you'll get bored of standing, so then you'll stop and sit. Or maybe lie down. Will you get bored of lying down? And then what? Squat? Kneel? Hover-squat?
(by this time, some of the surrounding students have caught on to the fun and offered suggestions. Like getting bored of drinking, writing, looking, running, etc. Also by this time, I had cleared a quarter of this student's coloring job. Added to her own quarter's worth of work, her art was now half done.)
Student: Ok, I'm not bored anymore.
Me: But I'm not bored of talking about you being bored yet!
(students laugh)
Student: That's ok. You can stop now.
This student had a finely drawn and colored piece of art at the end of class. Teacher: 1. Boredom: 0.
Later, I left for tutoring right after art class, still wired. I'm pretty sure my tutee thinks I'm crazy now.
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