Thursday, January 24, 2008

Drama, 02200 Style!

There were big goings-on at one of my schools today. It was kind of difficult to get the full and complete story, and I'm still not sure that I understand everything, but here's what I know. Remember that the teacher of the CE2/CM1 monster class is on paternity leave, so there's been a substitute for a while. Apparently today one of the kids told their parents that the sub had talked about sex in class and used bad language, and then I assume this parent called a bunch of other parents (either that or a bunch of kids told their parents this) and those parents all went to the Inspection (school district offices) to complain about the substitute. So the sub left during recreation, it was all chaotic, he ran in and out of the building with all the teachers a bunch of times before he left, protesting that he had only yelled at a kid who couldn't answer a question he had asked, they had to call and make sure they could get a different sub for tomorrow, lots of confusion. School didn't start again until like 4, so the kids were on recré for like an hour. So now I'm in charge of the monster class, and when I go to let them back into school they all swarm me wanting to know what's going on. I don't know of course, so I don't say anything. Then this girl comes up to me and says that the sub had been tzlking to them about how important it is not to smoke and he had started crying because someone in his family has some kind of health problem. And that is about all I know. Maybe the kid that he yelled at got upset and made up the other story, who knows. I hate to think that there's a kid in that class spreading a lie like that but I know the girl who told me that he'd been talking about smoking wouldn't like. We'll see what ends up happening....

Not a whole lot happening here, just the normal teaching and working. I found a new way to make the CE1s, who have been crazy since vacation, be quiet - stickers! On Tuesday I told them that I would give stickers to the kids who behaved well during class, and I decided to only choose four kids. I told them today that we were playing the same game and they were silent all class. They really wanted those stickers, and they were so excited when they got them!

I'm going to Chauny again tomorrrow, but the exciting news is that they may be coming to Soissons tonight for karaoke! If they end up coming I'm inviting Pantsless Neighbor. By the way, we've had yet another pantless encounter. He was coming out of the shower, I was coming out of the bathroom, it was fun for everyone.

4 comments:

Rose said...

School drama is the same everywhere!! Eesh.

Stickers = magic.

More Pantsless Neighbor updates please. Kthxbye.

:-) Rose

Leah said...

Yeah, they loooove stickers. I do passwords ie a word per class or week for each letter of the alphabet: apple, balloon, clock, dog, egg, flower, etc. I think I sent you the file for the passwords that I color in and post on the wall and then I drew the words on monster-sized flashcards. I choose a kid(try to make it so everyone gets a sticker) to tell me the word and if it's said correctly or at least very near to correct, they get a sticker in their notebook. They love this!

You can also use stickers for a star chart and those kids that behave well get a star next to their name at the end of the week. You just make an excel spreadsheet with everyone's name in the class, then you can either put it up or show it to them every week and say in English how many stars each kid has. The deal is that the student(s) with the most stars in each class gets a little cadeau at the end of the year(candy, more stickers, etc) Kids are usually pretty impatient and need immediate awards, but this works because they feel like the star sticker is the immediate award and then you just remind them about the cadeau at the end of the year every week and they'll get all excited.

And I think I already mentioned about dividing the kids into teams?

Otherwise, for keeping them quiet, it can also work to put your finger to your lips and say "j'attends le silence" or start counting "1, 2, 3...look at me" and some of the kids will start to catch onto it and shush the other kids around them. Also, you can try talking very quietly and they'll want to hear what you're saying, so they'll be quiet(that one doesn't always work...it's better with the little ones.)

Anyways, just my deux centimes for ya...

Anonymous said...

Wow that's really weird...I hope they get to the bottom of it.
That's why it's so bizarre that we as untrained and unqualified people can teach kids alone in a classroom..

au soleil levant said...

Leah, I'm totally going to start using the star chart idea. I think it's a lot more fair than just deciding every once in a while to give them stickers for behaving. Hopefully this will set up a more consistent pattern of good behavior!