You want the students to like you, right? It doesn't matter. Do not promise anything to your students (good or bad) that you cannot follow through on. I'm talking about consequences and rewards.
Yesterday the school gave us (my lead teacher and me) six free passes to a school fundraiser at a local rollerskating rink. Keep in mind that we have thirty students and I have a bleeding heart for each one of them and 80% of our school population comes from low socio-economic backgrounds. How is that fair? Anyway, I had to choose six kids but, I love all thirty and couldn't decide. I decided to play a fair game of "Eny Meny Miny Moe" to choose the six because it just wouldn't be right to simply hand them to six kids who had a good day (that sounds wrong, but they all have bad/good days sometimes!). Well, the game didn't go so well and we had kids flipping desks, bawling their eyes out, and pouting at their desks.... Not what I expected!
What did I do then? I offered them a fun lunch, of course. A fun lunch (I was making it up as I went) is where you get to have your lunch with the teacher (me, duh, because I'm cool) and watch something cool/not exactly what the school would deem "educational." To qualify for this fun lunch, you had to be a good sport about not getting a pass. Some kids were like, "I'll be fine, I have my own allowance!" and others were freaking out like the world would end earlier than December 21st.
Did I look at the school lunch menu before making that promise? Did I ask my lead teacher if it was okay? Did I find out if they could even take lunch out of the cafeteria (maybe a strange thing to wonder, but I guess with Title I schools there are some rules about free/reduced lunch)? Did I plan ahead and pick out something to watch during Fun Lunch before this morning? Did I think about whether I'd actually want to spend an additional 45 minutes with them in the event that we had a bad day? The answer to all of those questions: No.
Luckily, after talking this morning to my lead teacher, she was all for it and helped me get permission from the cafeteria and track down a "special" garbage bag from the friendly janitor. Then, while my lead teacher was talking to the students this morning, I polled them and asked what they like to watch at home and found some "Funniest Animals" Animal Planet video on Netflix (thank goodness that worked on the district computer, nothing else does!) based on their requests. Luckily, pulling Fun Lunch together last minute was easy.
Then I saw what they were bringing into the classroom for lunch.
Remember how in elementary school you'd get at least one or two nasty lunches every once in a while? They smelled like baby poop and looked like grey/off-white slop? Unfortunately for me, they had my least favorite school lunch EVER; turkey/gravy/mashed potatoes. It stank up the room and it is almost unbearable, even as I type! What was ironic was that they were saying that my food smelled bad and was "so stinky" (it was a delicious vermicelli noodle-shrimp-red pepper-garlic-curry-stirfry thing from Tastier Than Takeout). Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it was my nightmare lunch... Once the first student walked in, I had visions of "gravy" all over every desk, rubbed into the brand new rug (circle time), smeared on the walls... Although I'm exaggerating, reality wasn't too different from my vision of gravy terror.
The "special" garbage bag had a hole somewhere and of course, being the genius that I am, I let it sit on the doormat while students tossed their half-full milks and trays of mush (apparently, they aren't fans of turkey+gravy+wannabe-potatoes, either!). There were not enough paper towels in the world to clean up the spilt milk because the rug was being stubborn and absorbing the milk instead of letting the crappy paper towels sop it up!
Aside from all of that, though, I really liked having the students eat lunch with me. We all laughed at the silly animals and ate together and I was sad when it was time for them to go to gym (which they call "PE" here and if you refer to it as "gym" they look at you incredulously and say, "HUH?!"). I think we all felt appreciated by one another and I wish I had more time in the classroom so we could do it again!
The "special" garbage bag had a hole somewhere and of course, being the genius that I am, I let it sit on the doormat while students tossed their half-full milks and trays of mush (apparently, they aren't fans of turkey+gravy+wannabe-potatoes, either!). There were not enough paper towels in the world to clean up the spilt milk because the rug was being stubborn and absorbing the milk instead of letting the crappy paper towels sop it up!
Aside from all of that, though, I really liked having the students eat lunch with me. We all laughed at the silly animals and ate together and I was sad when it was time for them to go to gym (which they call "PE" here and if you refer to it as "gym" they look at you incredulously and say, "HUH?!"). I think we all felt appreciated by one another and I wish I had more time in the classroom so we could do it again!
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