This morning I had my first full responsibility lesson with my adorable little 6th graders. We started off doing a KWL chart (know, want to know, and learned) on fractions. Im screwed because they already know a good amount on the future lessons I have already planned. They are very smart and are way ahead of expected at this age. I guess thats the point of this KWL chart, so that I can assess their prior knowledge and not waste time going over things they already know.
Moving on to the lesson. I felt it went very well. I have had PLENTY of time to prepare for it so I was just ready to DO it.
Fine. Dandy.
Can we talk a little bit about their behavior problems please?
Um..... first I would just like to say how scary it is. In fact, I have a couple of words to describe their behavior.
Scary
Creepy
Eeerie
Strange
Abnormal
Unnatural
you get the picture.
They are SO Creepy because they are SO well behaved! Its just wierd. I ask them to get out their book and guess what- they actually do! The first time I asked. I ask them to be quiet....oh wait I dont have to.
Today there was a part of my lesson where we created our own tangram. They had to cut and color individually. It was silent!
I said to them:
"You may quietly talk to your neighbor now"
Nothing. You could hear crickets.
"Im not going to get you in trouble if you talk"
Nothing
"you do know how to talk, don't you?"
some giggles but NO talking
"ok seriously. Please talk! I don't like sitting in silence"
Which is completely opposite of American students. Most of the time I am praying for silence and for them to listen to me and follow instructions. Two different worlds
It is also like a competition on who finishes their work first. Without fail, each and every one of them will raise their hand to tell me they are finished. Every single one! Then they will put down their pencil fold their arms and sit up straight. Like ROBOTS! I want to Shake them! Its not fun teaching robots! They are too similar in their matching uniforms and matching beaviors playing matching sports in matching PE clothes. The only thing not matching are their pencil pouches. When I saw that it was almost as if it screamed personality. They only way I know about these kids personal lives is through their pencil pouches.
Hello Kitty= comercially girly
Colorful flowers on canvas material= a soon to be little hippie
Billabong and Quicksilver= watch out this dude is going to be popular because he already knows what's up
Plain colors= need a little spice
I LOVE when they ask me questions. "Ms. Terry" (in cute little boy and girl british accents). I secretly pretend not to hear them so they will say it again. :) am i bad?
I LOVE how they say thank you at the end of a lesson and say bye. "Thank you Ms Terry" "See you tomorrow Ms Terry" "Bye Ms Terry" AHHHHHHH I want to squeeze their little heads they are so cute!
Overall good day :)
2 comments:
Every time I read your blog I want to cry!!!! It makes me miss England so much!
My 6th grade experience was very similar to the one you described. We all stood up when the teacher walked into the room and then sat down when she told us to. Robots is what we were. I remember coming to Texas (the first time I ever went to an American school was my first day at A&M) and being completely shocked at how different everything was!! Starting to observe in a classroom was the most mind-blowing thing to me. Test taking procedures were insane. You could leave after you were done? You could take your cell phone in? They only took 30 minutes to complete??? Now, the American school system is the norm for me, but when I first got here it was so different. I am so glad you get this wonderful experience!!!! I wish I could be there, teaching 6th grade math!! I should have warned you about how far ahead the school system is there. You learn trigonometry in 8th grade and calculus and statistics in 11th!!
I before E except after C... as in Weird, Caffeine, Foreign, etc.
miss you and your grammatically incorrect self.
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