Analog Girl in a Digital World

The title of today's post comes from a RX Bandits song. The real lyrics are "Analog boy in a digital world" but I'm not a boy...so sorry Bandits for taking artistic liberty. 

smart boards

I teach in a well-funded district that is lucky enough to have Smart Boards in almost every (if not all) classrooms.  Some rooms have Promethean Boards, but regardless, every room in which I teach has a Smart Board.  My wonderful alma mater JUST got Smart Boards and students there are now learning how to use them. A lot of good that does me now, amIright?! Most of the other teachers in the district have embraced their Smart Boards and do super cool stuff with them. This is where the title of this blog comes in - I felt kind of out of the loop technology wise, which is weird because as a "digital native" this should be second nature to me.  Luckily I attended one session at New York's music teacher convention where the presenter showed a lot of really cool activities to promote note reading, recognition of musical symbols, and even how to do a full-class dictation using this fun bit of technology.  I remembered key phrases (because I have a memory that likes to retain useless tidbits like what I did at my kindergarten placement test) such as the "move to back" function, how to lock things in place, and that there is a way to make an endlessly replicating object (which is called infinite cloning).  Those few things plus the fact that the Smart Board interface is very user friendly made it possible for me to make a classroom management tool on the Smart Board.  I'll post a picture of it in my next blog.  I was, as my colleagues can attest, a little too excited about what I made considering it's not fancy, but I hope it does the trick.  

It was important to me to tailor my classroom management to align with what my students have in their classrooms.  There isn't much of a difference between what the kindergarten and first grade teachers do in their rooms which was great for me.  Almost all of the teachers have some sort of system where the students get downgraded on a chart - such as moving from the green section of the chart to the yellow if they are on a first warning.  I decided to adopt this idea into my Smart management thing.  Fundamentally, I have an issue with the growing trend that we positively reinforce everything that a child does: "Great job, Jimmy! Thanks for blowing your nose in a tissue and not into Jane's hair! Here's a sticker." I'm sorry, but I don't think that kids should get in the habit of expecting a reward for everything he/she does.  Rewarding good behavior for a full class period is great because especially with the little ones to teach them that they need to sit and listen.  But, when I have a kid come up to me and say - and this has happened - "I just helped John tie his shoe! Can I have a sticker now?", well that's where I draw the line. Helping someone tie a shoe is something that a nice human does. While it is a wonderful thing to show kindness, kids shouldn't expect a reward each time they do anything. So, that's why I don't have a prize box (also because I'm not lugging a box of chotchkies between 4 schools) and instead have a compliment jar on my Smart Board.  I used the infinite clone feature to make a star that can be moved from the treasure box into the jar.  It works similarly to House Points in Harry Potter - if a student earns a compliment from me, like "Jenny, thank you so much for sitting with good posture during class today and singing more confidently than ever before", Jenny gets to add a compliment star to the compliment jar. Or, if the whole class is improving their steady beat keeping, I can compliment them as a whole and add a compliment star on behalf of all of the students.  When the class reaches the magic number (TBD) of compliments, they get a round of a game (probably Freeze Dance, because who doesn't love that?!)  Like I said, I haven't implemented this yet, but I have explained that it will be happening to the kids and they seem down with it.

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

Your welcome for giving you an excuse to belt some Aretha Franklin.  
As basic as this might sound, respect is something that we as teachers have to be cognizant of.  Teachers are usually pretty decent at being respectful and empathetic toward each other but we all, myself definitely included, need to remember that we have to respect our students and remember that they are still growing and learning.  When a kindergartener is being a pain, it's easy to think "what's wrong with this kid?!" (I know I do that about 10 times every class) but this student may have a rough time at home or something.  I have been constantly reminding myself that we need to respect our students and keep in mind that we need to guide them in the right direction.  Especially with the little ones, treating them kindly even when they're being irrational and "annoying" sets a good example that they should do the same when encountered with a similar situation.  

Just think - with every student you encounter you're looking into the face of a person who is just learning what it is to be a person, to be in school, to be a kindergartener, or even to be an 11th grader.  I hope that when people look at me, they respect my situation and realize that they're looking into the face of a girl who is still trying to figure out this adult world, and who has no more of an idea of what it means to be an adult than a 5 year old knows what it means to be a kindergartener.  We're all just passengers on this crazy ride called life and every single soul, young or old, is trying to discover themselves.

Think about it next time you want to snap at a kid. I know I will.