After Meanness (solsc2015) 19/31

 

Sweet peace. A breath of relief, for today at least!

Yesterday I wrote about getting mean. Today I wondered how my classroom ambience would be. Business as usual? I surely hoped not. I really thought about what all I wanted those kids to do today. I wanted to fill the hours (yes, plural) that they’d be with me in a productive and interesting way. And keep them on task and behaving appropriately. Yesterday they took a test, and just before that we finished the last two big things we’d been doing, so today was kind of a filler day,  the next to the last day of the quarter. Oh, and the day before Friday. I thought about showing a movie, but I really don’t like to do that without it being about anything we’re studying in class.

I came up with some good things to do – first they made vocabulary flashcards on their iPads using the Quizlet app. This app is good because it gives them three ways to study their words once they’ve entered them with their definitions. Two of them are kind of like games, which they enjoy.  They all had to set up accounts and then they quickly made their flash cards. It was all really smooth, and the coolest part was that when I put the completely obnoxious, misbehaving boys in the seats apart from each other, at the front of the classroom, they just meekly sat in them. The whole time they were in class.  YEAH!!

So does that mean that getting mean was successful? Useful? Yes, I think so. But, and this is important, the obedience will only last as long as, well, I don’t know how long. I was going to say something authoritative like “as long as I hold them tightly in place.” But I’m not sure that’s true. I think it is, but that can’t include being mean every day. It’ll all fall apart if I try to do that. And I won’t even be able to be mean very often. I forget to maintain something so uncomfortable.

Next week we’re starting new and interesting projects that involve research and creation of presentations in Haiku Deck on the iPads. I think we’ll be good until Spring Break.  Please and I hope so!