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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

It's kind of a "chugga-chugga-chinka" sound

You know how when you take your car into the mechanic because it's making that weird sound, but then it doesn't actually make that sound while you're at the mechanic's? Or when you go to the doctor because something is really bothering you, but then it's fine for the duration of the office visit?

Well, I had the kid-equivalent version of that today.

We have a math coach at our school for a couple of days a week this year, and after meeting with her yesterday, we arranged for her to observe my class today. I wanted her to especially see my misbehaving, non-attention-paying, low academic afternoon class.

And wouldn't you know it -- that class was spectacular today! They were explaining things, they were using math words, they were participating... they were even behaving better than usual.

Of course, there were a couple that were far less than perfect. My ADD boy has for some reason developed loud hiccups for the past couple of days, and apparently they are contagious, as another child started mid-class as well.

But overall, the kids did as they were asked, they gave good answers to my questions while going over homework, and they seemed to listen.

The coach told me later, "You have some great kids!"

While I certainly never want to nay-say a comment like that, I still had to protest just a bit, saying, "But they're not usually like that!!"

Overall, though, it made for a pleasant day.

In my morning class, the counselor did a guidance lesson on college and career choice, and the kids got a page asking what job they aspired to. I had several future doctors, soldiers, and teachers. I also had 2 girls (bright, in my opinion) write that they want to work at Jack-in-the-Box when they grow up.

Hey, ya gotta have goals, right?

4 comments:

Nick James said...

Students are sometimes a lot better whenever there is another adult in the room.

As for aspirations, I had a student last year tell me very seriously that he wanted to be a "hot dog guy," as in one of the guys in NYC selling you those $1 hot dogs on the street.

Mary Mueller said...

Doesn't that almost always happen! Have her come again maybe, next time she won't be so new??

Mister Teacher said...

But the really weird thing is that before the coach came into the room, she stood outside of the door and listened for a bit -- the kids couldn't see her. And they were still behaving much better than usual!

LSquared32 said...

I think it's magic, and you should have her/him come a lot.

As for the hiccups, there was an npr short a while back (that I can't find a reference to) of a hiccup researcher who kept trying to audio tape hiccups (his wife gave piano lessons, I think, and if a child got the hiccups, he'd bring in a tape recorder to try and record them), but when he brought out the tape recorder, the hiccups would always stop before he had a chance to record anything. I've since wondered if it would work if you weren't a hiccup researcher--maybe you could try it.