Thursday, March 4, 2010

2 things that make me feel like a teacher...

...and I'm not sure how I feel about that:

1. To celebrate Literature Week, we made posters of The Books We Love (and why). I just finished making a sign for our display. It says, "What's at the heart of the books we love?" and yes, it is on a piece of red construction paper. In the shape of a heart.

2. Half of our school was running around the playground today playing a new version of tag. It's called "Take a Break," and it involves catching someone, screaming "TAKE A BREAK!!!" and dragging them over to the picnic tables, where they have to sit down and not play for a while. I asked; it was invented by two of my children, who "got the idea from me." My informant then tagged me and said, "Ms. Cochran, now you have to go and think about what you've done!"

Re: 1: When parents come in for Read with Your Kid day tomorrow, they're going to think I'm lazy and have left this stuff up from Valentine's Day. Whereas I ignored V-Day entirely, but was on my kids all week about getting a final draft ready for Our Display. Maybe the folding and cutting out of a red paper heart is just something I'm programmed to do around this time of year, and I can't be easy until I've done it. Maybe I emphasized product over process this time around. At any rate, I'm learning that sometimes, you just have to have something up on your bulletin boards.

Re: 2: We all know intellectually that children mimic what they hear; and all parents have, I'm sure, experienced the acute embarrassment that comes from hearing your words and tone coming out of a 3-foot-tall body. I know in my brain that I'm modeling liberal bourgeois speech patterns for my children; I do it on purpose. And yet, and yet - it's always a little disconcerting when children learn what you teach.

1 comment:

mchughtie said...

My students came back from recess raving about this game, Blair. It was touted as "the best recess ever." I think I somehow circumvent this phenomenon by turning my disciplinary measures into a game to begin with. It's probably not a good idea when you think about it- making consequences seem fun, etc. But it gets its own special representation in their work- consider the poem, "Locker Monster" by one of my second graders. The locker monster comes when everything's a mess and eats your choice time. It was a really great poem...