Stop Reporting Things!
Mar. 29th, 2018 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafina20Link to post with picture of me
So, a big thing in education is teaching kids when something is reporting and something is tattling. But, honestly? Sometimes I’m not sure of the difference myself. Or, sometimes, it’s not as clear cut as all that and everything is muddled and it makes me feel frustrated.
. For some reason, at my school, tag is not allowed. I don’t know why. I don’t really agree with it because I love tag and I love playing tag and I like being able to play tag with the kids. My third year of teaching I taught at a school with no playground and no equipment, so all we could play was tag. It was awesome. But, not tag.
The kids struggle with this. I mean, it’s natural. They run and they chase and they naturally want to touch each other and shout, “You’re it!” Even the best behaved kids fall into the trap.
Last week, a bunch of boys were caught playing tag. Only, one of the kids had fallen and the others gathered around him and were smacking him playfully. A teacher caught them and all of them got infractions. Because, Lord, I am tired of explaining they can’t play tag.
Today, it was the last recess before spring break. I was almost home free. We were going to clean our desks, gather our school currency for the school store, play some games, go to the store, play some more, then clean up and go home.
But, my informer ran up. “These five kids were playing tag.”
And… see, my gut says he was tattling. No one was hurt and the only aim in telling me is to get them in trouble. But, they were breaking a rule. One that he’d gotten in trouble for breaking the previous week. (I think he was one of my taggers). And I felt like I couldn’t just let it pass, especially since they all admitted it (sort of; one girl said she was just running away from the rest of them, and another said she didn’t get a chance to actually touch anyone. But… it was still tag).
So, they all got infractions. But, man, my day would have been so much better if that kid hadn’t reported anything.
In other news, last week, I had a sixth grade guest in my class who was in school suspended. She sat and worked quietly at the back table and was a very nice student. On the first day, I started to get overly warm and went to the back of the class to turn on the air. Being warm, I wasn’t especially happy, so I may have had a scowl on my face while I went to the air conditioner, which may have prompted the questions, “Is teaching tiring?” from my guest.
“It can be,” I answered.
Later that day, she came over and stood by me. She said, “I used to want to be a teacher, but now I’m not sure. It looks hard.”
So, I told her, “It can be, but anything is going to be hard at times. Everything you do, even when you love it, can be hard and can be tiring. If you think you want to be a teacher, you should do it because there’s a lot of good stuff too, even if you get tired.” It probably won’t sway her, but you never know.
In Disney World news, I’ve pretty much got all my outfits together for all four days. I’ll do a post with pictures another time, but basically I’m wearing:
something Star Wars themed to Hollywood Studios
a Lilo and Stitch sundress to Walt Disney World, day 1
a Lion King dress to Animal Kingdom
an Elsa Disneybound* to Epcot
and a Belle Disneybound to Disney World day 2
For shoes, I’m just wearing sneakers every day, which’ll look awful with my Elsa dress, but what are you going to do? I want to be comfortable and I have two pairs of sneakers already broken in. I’m taking a pair of hiking sandals to Animal Kingdom to ride on Kali River Rapids so my shoes don’t get wet, but I probably won’t walk around in them a whole lot.
As for my suitcase, I think I’m going to have to buy another one. The one I have will just about fit everything I’m taking if I pack right and use the packing cubes my brother got me for my birthday, but… there won’t be much room to bring anything back. And while I don’t plan on buying much, you never know. I went to Wonder Con last weekend with my suitcase and had to carry everything I bought in extra bags. Granted, I mostly bought books and art, but still. I need to leave myself wiggle room. So, I’ll be checking my luggage, which is good because now I don’t need to worry about my liquids bag, which was stressing me out.
Anyway…. 88 more days to go!!
(*Disneybounding is a way of dressing up as a character without violating the rule that adults can’t wear costumes in the parks. It’s wearing a color scheme/style of a character in tribute to them. So, when I go as Belle, I’m wearing a blue dress and a book necklace. I know Belle doesn’t wear a book necklace, but she likes books.)
So, a big thing in education is teaching kids when something is reporting and something is tattling. But, honestly? Sometimes I’m not sure of the difference myself. Or, sometimes, it’s not as clear cut as all that and everything is muddled and it makes me feel frustrated.
. For some reason, at my school, tag is not allowed. I don’t know why. I don’t really agree with it because I love tag and I love playing tag and I like being able to play tag with the kids. My third year of teaching I taught at a school with no playground and no equipment, so all we could play was tag. It was awesome. But, not tag.
The kids struggle with this. I mean, it’s natural. They run and they chase and they naturally want to touch each other and shout, “You’re it!” Even the best behaved kids fall into the trap.
Last week, a bunch of boys were caught playing tag. Only, one of the kids had fallen and the others gathered around him and were smacking him playfully. A teacher caught them and all of them got infractions. Because, Lord, I am tired of explaining they can’t play tag.
Today, it was the last recess before spring break. I was almost home free. We were going to clean our desks, gather our school currency for the school store, play some games, go to the store, play some more, then clean up and go home.
But, my informer ran up. “These five kids were playing tag.”
And… see, my gut says he was tattling. No one was hurt and the only aim in telling me is to get them in trouble. But, they were breaking a rule. One that he’d gotten in trouble for breaking the previous week. (I think he was one of my taggers). And I felt like I couldn’t just let it pass, especially since they all admitted it (sort of; one girl said she was just running away from the rest of them, and another said she didn’t get a chance to actually touch anyone. But… it was still tag).
So, they all got infractions. But, man, my day would have been so much better if that kid hadn’t reported anything.
In other news, last week, I had a sixth grade guest in my class who was in school suspended. She sat and worked quietly at the back table and was a very nice student. On the first day, I started to get overly warm and went to the back of the class to turn on the air. Being warm, I wasn’t especially happy, so I may have had a scowl on my face while I went to the air conditioner, which may have prompted the questions, “Is teaching tiring?” from my guest.
“It can be,” I answered.
Later that day, she came over and stood by me. She said, “I used to want to be a teacher, but now I’m not sure. It looks hard.”
So, I told her, “It can be, but anything is going to be hard at times. Everything you do, even when you love it, can be hard and can be tiring. If you think you want to be a teacher, you should do it because there’s a lot of good stuff too, even if you get tired.” It probably won’t sway her, but you never know.
In Disney World news, I’ve pretty much got all my outfits together for all four days. I’ll do a post with pictures another time, but basically I’m wearing:
something Star Wars themed to Hollywood Studios
a Lilo and Stitch sundress to Walt Disney World, day 1
a Lion King dress to Animal Kingdom
an Elsa Disneybound* to Epcot
and a Belle Disneybound to Disney World day 2
For shoes, I’m just wearing sneakers every day, which’ll look awful with my Elsa dress, but what are you going to do? I want to be comfortable and I have two pairs of sneakers already broken in. I’m taking a pair of hiking sandals to Animal Kingdom to ride on Kali River Rapids so my shoes don’t get wet, but I probably won’t walk around in them a whole lot.
As for my suitcase, I think I’m going to have to buy another one. The one I have will just about fit everything I’m taking if I pack right and use the packing cubes my brother got me for my birthday, but… there won’t be much room to bring anything back. And while I don’t plan on buying much, you never know. I went to Wonder Con last weekend with my suitcase and had to carry everything I bought in extra bags. Granted, I mostly bought books and art, but still. I need to leave myself wiggle room. So, I’ll be checking my luggage, which is good because now I don’t need to worry about my liquids bag, which was stressing me out.
Anyway…. 88 more days to go!!
(*Disneybounding is a way of dressing up as a character without violating the rule that adults can’t wear costumes in the parks. It’s wearing a color scheme/style of a character in tribute to them. So, when I go as Belle, I’m wearing a blue dress and a book necklace. I know Belle doesn’t wear a book necklace, but she likes books.)
