Hi I have a bad experience today in a class. I was teaching in kinder .I have started my class greeting, asking what the weather was like ( we have a board where they draw if it is sunny, rainy or cloudy) and I have a poster with different objects painted with different colour which is used to revise the colours. while we were telling the colours, one of a girl told me she was bored in my class and she wanted to leave the room ( She is 5 years old) when I asked her what she did not like of my class she told me that she wanted diffents posters every day ,them she sat down and every moment we were working she stopped me and shouted "I am bored" what can I do in this case ? the rest of the children were looking at her and began to say I liked the class
Paola Lardone
08-05-2011 22:09
Hi!! I had a similar experience a few years ago. I proposed myself that I would surprise my students every class, not with whole sets of new posters but with something that would catch their attention right from the beginning...and that would have something to do, with something by the end of the class. I'll explain better: When this happened, this little boy would cry, saying he wanted to leave because he didn't like the class. He cried, I got really sad because it was hard to cope with the rest of the class, the other kids being sort of upset too, and it turned out all wrong. So next class, I was at the entrance wearing a huge hat, with lots of colours, and they were really curious about my hat and everything. As clothes was the topic, I developed the hello/weather/circle time routine normally, without saying absolutely anything about my hat, which by that time, had caught all the eyes in the room. After that I said, well, oh! I feel strange! and I started touching, my head, and I said, oh! what's this! they laughed, shouted a hat!! and I had hats for all and me played passing on hats while singing, we named the colours, commented on big and small, etc. From that onward, he didn't cry anymore...and they were all kind of excited to see what was the surprise of the day. I remember that one class I took, plastic glasses with candies ("confites") and they first heard the sound and made guessings...then they smelled it, after that they tasted all with eyes closed, and we practiced the senses and they had fun. And I kept the mystery through out the class. After that, I gave them the candies, with finished the class, and had fun.
I don't know if this is a lot! and if it's useful..hpe it is!
Good luck! Pao
lucila
01-05-2011 23:20
hi Patricia! My name is Lucila. Let me give you a piece of advice, it´s true that children say what they feel, and our work as teachers is listen them but not make them feel they can control the class. So If I were you I would tell this little girl, to wait till tomorrow that there will be a surprise or just tell her that you will need her help to make a new poster, this kind of answer make them feel they are important and can help to change their actitude in the class. I hope this advice works, have an excellent week! cheers,
Lucila
creativeteaching
20-04-2011 00:06
Hi Patricia!
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
Let's see what other colleagues can tell us about this situation... It's a good idea to listen to different opinions and try to get to a solution.
C'mon people! What can we tell Patricia?
First of all, you are a good teacher who is willing to learn and give your best to the students...so, don't you feel frustrated (we know it's difficult...)
