Friday, February 14, 2014

Squirrelly

The special ed. freshman English class entered loudly. Chaotically. The bell rang, and they still hadn't gotten seated.

This tells me quite a lot about how the period is going to go.

I explained the assignment. It was a simple word search. (They had time to finish up the week's work first, so the word search was just to keep them busy if they were finished.) I passed it out.

"Can we work in groups?"

"What are these words?"

"This is too small."

The letters were printed in a smaller font, probably at about 12 point. So, yes, it was small. Too small?

They were not happy when I wouldn't let them work in groups. I did not even let them out of their assigned seats. They complained. Loudly.

How hard is a word search, really? Like they need help with this?

(I would have let them help each other, but it was already clear that the class would go insane if I gave them that sort of leeway.)

They had had a sub the previous day. Her comment: "This class needs to repeat kindergarten." A little harsh? Perhaps. But I saw her point.

(I still had to deal with three boys who could not remain seated. One got up and danced. Then there was the trash can basketball. Sigh.)

2 comments:

  1. Was it GOOD dancing?

    As always, I'm not sure how you do your job day in and day out without banging your head into a locker over and over.

    If it was me, I'd have complained about the word search because: boring.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, the dancing was just silly.

      Yes, the word search was boring. But I think the teacher knew her class. I have a feeling that if she gave me anything more challenging, they would have just refused to do it, and I would have had more trouble keeping them settled.

      Delete

I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.