Last Saturday’s
transformation lesson was an extremely exciting and new experience for our
students as well as us teachers. They learned about the transformation process
of a caterpillar to a butterfly with the help of performance art. To add to the backdrop of the lesson, we set
up a stage by installing curtains in the front of the room. There were a total of
three acts. The first act consisted of us pretending to be very hungry caterpillars
while eating our snack (just after we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar book).
The second act we broke up into partners and wrapped each other in toilet paper
to perform as ca coons. The third and final act was breaking free from the toilet
paper and attaching butterfly wings to complete our butterfly transformation. We
had learned through our habitat class that the students worked well with partners.
For the most part they stayed well behaved through the performances. In
addition, continuing to use power teaching helped keep the students on track. With
the exception of a few students, the lesson went smoothly. However it was those
few students at certain times that held us back, taking up more class time.
Specifically,
our student Trinity was a little more aggressive than usual. We found that when
she got frustrated with fellow students, she resorted to hitting and yelling. The first time we noticed this was when her
and Sophie were playing with a small toy that Charlotte brought in. At one
point they struggled with sharing and the problems with kicking and crying
started. Later on, Trinity acted up again with the same behavior after she had issues
with sharing the disposable camera. Originally the first camera was given to
Sam so he could keep motivated and participate without any problems. He had
been too physical during the performance; pushing others, screaming and
running. Although this appeared to work
for Sam’s best interest, it unfortunately distracted some of the other students.
Before we knew it everyone wanted a turn. It caused problems with sharing and urged
students to take the camera out of their classmates’ hands without asking. I
remember specifically Trinity acting out once again and I had to take the camera
away. I don’t know if it was just an off day for her or the fact that because
not everyone was doing the exact thing at the same time; leaving her to feel
left out or unequally treated. Especially with younger students, it is hard to
keep the right balance of attention for the best intentions and needs of the
students. What works for one student does not always work with others. Anytime
you try to compensate for a students learning experience, it can sometimes negativity
effect another ones learning process as well. How do we handle students who
need extra attention without disturbing the rest of the class? And how do we properly
deal with bad behavior that consequently ends up with physical and verbal lashing
out?
I was surprised to see Trinity acting out in this way since she has never behaved like this before. Perhaps it was just an off day or it could have just been that we weren't in our usual routine. Either way, I found myself in a dilemma that involved something I didn't actually see, but that I was supposed to act on. Trinity told me that one of the student took something from her and the other student said he didn't, so who do you believe if you didn't see it happen? The only thing I could do at the moment was encourage both of them to share since we only had a few extra cameras. The whole situation wouldn't even have happened if we hadn't given Sam a camera to try to keep him busy, but how do you balance all the needs of every student without others feeling left out or treated unfairly? These are just some of the questions that I've been thinking about recently since we haven't talked as much about classroom management.
ReplyDeleteGiving Sam a camera seemed to work out very well to me. I did notice that other students wanted to take pictures, but giving the other students a few extra cameras to share helped. I was excited to see how Sam acted with the camera. He was focused and interested in what he was doing. The pictures he took for a previous assignment turned out great, so we thought it would be an activity that he would be interested in and do well with. It is a challenge and sometimes uncomfortable to have students be working on different things at the same time. Meeting the unique needs of each student is difficult, and something I need to practice.
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