As my fourth graders prepare for store, they take inventory of all the tokens they've earned for good behavior. I have one particular student who absolutely cannot concentrate on counting when others are counting around him. "STOP TALKING", he'll insist, as he himself continues to count out loud. Finally today I said: "Hon, just take off your hearing aids if you need it quiet to count". He was happy to tear them off.
Looking back, it may not have been the smartest thing to call his attention to the fact that he can selectively hear whenever he wants, but for today, it stopped the whining, and that was really all that mattered.
This same student had twenty-five tokens and took a lot of time deliberating over what prize he was going to buy at my "store". He thought through a few scenarios, working out the subtraction on the board to see how many tokens he would have left if he bought x or y or z. He finally settled on two pieces of candy, but walked away afterwards declaring: "I will spend no more and I am NOT kidding".
5 comments:
haha, having a group of kids you never will lack for funny tales!
Brenda
When I was little, my mom would scold me and I would take mine out. She would get sooo mad at me!!! There has been a few times over the years I have almost walked out of the house without my aids on because I wasn't "ready" to hear for the day. I love this story!
~JO
Selective hearing. Worked for you as a kid!!! HAHAHA Mom
Lol! I always say that when I leave a store too... Hehe...
Dear Untenured teacher:
I randomly found your blog while taking a sick day from my (also untenured) first-grade position in Florida. I have been reading some of your archived posts, and I have really enjoyed them. You seem to have been through a lot of the same things I have - joy over finding things that work in the classroom, frustration at the constant setbacks, laughter at some off-the-wall thing a kid said, moments of "holy-cow-what-made-me-think-I-could-be-good-at-this." I am just glad to find someone who writes what I would if I had one ounce of mental energy at the end of the day! I look forward to becoming a regular reader!
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