Following Directions

I have never been a firm believer in kids acting differently because of the weather or a full moon.  Teaching may make me a believer.  For the most part, I consider myself really lucky.  My class listens to directions and completes them relatively accurately.  I would be lying if I said I didn't have a few that tried to push every boundary possible but a large majority are pretty good listeners.  Maybe the honey moon period is rubbing off......maybe it was the weather.  When the other 1st grade teachers commented their classes were struggling to follow directions, I didn't feel quite as bad.

There were times during the day that I felt as if they were outside at recess.

There were times during the day that I just stood in front of my class with my finger to my lips, signaling that they needed to get quiet.

There were times during the day that I just kind of laughed because I wasn't sure we were ever going to complete the task at hand.

There were times when I threatened the loss of minutes of recess.

There were times when I threatened the loss of a whole recess.

Don't get me wrong, I like LOVE collaboration!  My teaching philosophy is based on collaboration.  In the real world, you always are bouncing ideas off of others to figure out the best possible solution.  So why should we teach children in a way they will not live their life?  There are obviously times when we must do things on our own and they must do things on their own in my room as well.  But I am constantly allowing them to work with partners, ask a friend, turn to an elbow buddy and share, and work in small groups.  I make groups, I allow them to make groups, and we work as a whole.  There are benefits to all.

Today was a different story!!  They simply couldn't handle working with others.  Our room became a dull-roaring jungle.  I tried and tried to let them work together but something was off!  During my math lesson, when half of my students were talking to someone next to them instead of getting directions to work with manipulatives with a partner, I had them put everything away and pull out a piece of paper.  On the paper, they were to write their number (each student is assigned a number 1-18).  My next direction was to pass it one person to the left and write the number that was one more than the number on the paper.  This is a math skill we are working on.  Then they had to pass it to their left when I said go.  It was supposed to work out that each person ended up with their own paper.  It didn't work to say the least and I knew it wouldn't.  It fed into my game plan pretty well.  I was able to talk to them as a whole about needing to follow directions or you hold others up.  I apologized to the students that routinely follow directions and made all of them think about their direction following abilities.  If they were one that needed constant reminders, I asked that they turn their listening ears on for me...and leave them on.

All in all, I think I scared some of my students.  It may have been what needed to happen----I hope they all come back tomorrow.  Blame it on what you want but I hope I have 17 students with listening ears tomorrow!

Off to line judge a volleyball game!

Toodles!!  Sorry if there are spelling mistakes....I was typing like a mad woman and didn't go back and reread!