Thursday, November 3, 2011

Attention Grabbers

4th period 8th grade physical science. Their rather long assignment was due at the end of the period, so the class worked silently.

Almost.

I heard a drip from the back of the room. Then another. Then another.

The class giggled.

Sigh.

The boys in that part of the room now had my undivided attention.

It's a noise they make using their mouths and flicking their cheeks with their fingers. I'm sure you're familiar with it. If not, there are all sorts of lovely tutorials on YouTube...



It normally doesn't bother me. My reaction is more akin to a rolling-of-the-eyes and a look of "really, you're pulling that?". But if it's going to get the class riled up, then I have to do something about it.

Once I started watching those boys, the sound stopped. What a surprise. The minute I looked away, I heard it again. When I looked up, the boys all put on their innocent faces. (If they had been looking at their books and/or papers, I might have believed they were innocent. Looking at me is what gives it away.)

I included the incident in my note. Clearly, the boys wanted the attention.

Can you do the water drop sound? (I can't, but then again, I've never tried.)

4 comments:

  1. I cannot do the water drop sound.

    I once had a student who turned a disposable camera into a tazer and spent some class time shocking his classmates.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this is a perfect example of "boys will be boys."

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's amazing that the stuff that I saw in high school more than twenty years ago is being repeated today with kids. Nothing ever changes.

    ReplyDelete

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