It was a warm and sunny day... and teaching for Ben Holding had been going well. UNTIL the last lesson anyway.
Basically I just had my grade 3 class and as usual they wern't doing anything. I just about mustered 2 people to read along with me. I thought that tempting them with some stamps would be the correct thing to do so I said that the person to answer the question would get a stamp. So far so good they are working. The first girl got the question correct and recieved a stamp in return. BAM it suddenly hit the rest of the children (the ones that don't pay attention) that I was giving out stamps. This is when the chaos started.
I had to call in the teacher 4 times. The first time was because one kid was really bullying another boy (who obviously has unrecognised aspergers syndrome...) quite badly. Anarchy had obviously been called in that classroom. Children started screaming at me "GIVEEE ME A STAMP. I WANT ONE" etc. Little fights were also beginning to erupt between whose with stamps and whose without stamps. The worst part was the last question. I said that the first one to finish all the work would get a stamp. Once the person who came second starting throwing over desks, crying and screaming I realised he wasn't too happy. Then he went straight for the guy who came first. I had to actually break up a fist fight between two 3rd graders It was rediculous. The teacher came back in and when I bell went I slowly crept out, not to stop myself from being noticed but because I was inundated with hordes of kids screaming for stamps.
Just another day,
Ben
I was planning to send more stamps - I thought it would be a good idea but maybe after todays scene not!! They give stickers out at my school for good homework/ behaviour/ being kind/ listening etc etc - do you want me to get some to sent you? they are very small and I can get 100's of them if you want - let me know through H&S or G&P
catharine
fuck me! Teaching sounds pretty hardcore - are they often this chaotic?