After the third time of warning the boys to stop talking to each other and threatening to make them write "I won't talk while the teacher is talking" one hundred times--a discipline measure I am fully NOT in support of because I don't want to turn kids against writing but used as an empty threat (another bad practice) because nothing else came to mind at the moment--I finally sent one student out into the hallway.
We moved his desk and his chair out along the railing. It really is a nice view from there--a volcano in the distance, rolling mountains, fields. I fretted a little bit that this probably meant the afternoon was lost for him, but at least these last fifteen minutes would not be lost to the other students.
Back in the classroom, I started going over the practice problem on the board. We were drawing a comparative bar graph of student quiz scores.
"Where should we put the students' names?" I asked. "On the x- or the y-axis?" The students, now working quietly, were nonresponsive or mumbled their answers.
"The x-axis!" a now small voice called out from the hallway.
"Yes," I said, pursing my lips to contain a chuckle as I wrote the names along the x-axis. "What score did Lana get on Quiz 1?"
"Seven!" he cried, in unison now with two of the top girls in class.
And so the lesson continued, me asking the questions, my ornery student and a few of the others answering. Thus, learning was done, even on a warm Friday afternoon.
1 comment:
I can just picture it! And all of them (the fifth grade class). I'm so glad I got to spend time with them. And at least it was Abraham and not Victor!!
Tell them Miss Pat said hola!
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