Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Teaching Tales

I worked with this little 3rd grader today for 2 hours, and 3 interesting things happened during those two hours:

1) He attacked me repeatedly with his markers. No joke, I came out of that room with black marks all over my arms plus a sticker (he enjoys rewarding me with stickers too). 

2) He pretended to pick his nose (it was a scratch, not a pick, for all you Seinfeld fans) and said he was digging for gold. I started calling him Golddigger. 

3) I taught him how to draw a heart. You see, for his listening skills activity, he was supposed to draw a heart inside the given heart, but I noticed that what he drew inside the given heart resembled a butt rather than a heart. "Want me to show you how to draw a heart?" I asked him. It took him a couple tries on his arm after I showed him, but the second one was markedly improved. I was proud. He went home that day with two black tattoos on his arm- one of a butt and one of a heart. 

Kids have way too much energy for their own good. It's such a relief for me during sessions when they start showing signs of flagging energy like yawning or putting their head on the table. That's when I know they'll stop attacking me with markers and actually listen, and that's when the learning begins. Am I joking? Maybe half-joking. In all seriousness though, with one of my students, the best session we ever had was when he was sick with the flu and huddled in a blanket. 

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