Not car related.

"Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection" (itsalwayssteve)
09/09/2018 at 10:15 • Filed to: None

5 Takeaways from 2 weeks in a 4th grade classroom full time:

1. It’s hard not to develop favorites. And it takes effort to not play favorites. I could tell you names of several current 4th graders I know that I want to see do big things in their lives. I do my best to treat all the kids equally and teach them equitably, but these kids shine above.

2. Rules and procedures need to be practiced daily. Daily. Even in 4th grade. Saying, “time to line up,” can have the same effect as lighting a short, quick fuse. When procedures are practiced daily, the explosion doesn’t happen.

3. Psychopathic behavior comes out early. The “mean girl,” in class is showing signs. She is also a “daddy’s little princess,” which doesn’t help. The team teacher - a 30+ year veteran of Camden County NJ schools before “retiring,” to Charlotte - said “that little girl is the devil. I’m gonna have to have a talk with daddy.”

4. 26 kids is too many for one classroom. Ideally the 4th and 5th grades would get one more room and teacher each to bring the ratio to 20:1. Unfortunately, legislators are more concerned about reelection and low taxes than actually doing what is good and right for the community.

5. Sometimes the disruptive kids, even as frustrating as they can be, are the most likable ones. One little girl in my class is always talking out of turn, making faces at people, whispering jokes, and being a total little shit. But she’s also smart, genuine, and funny. I think the fact that she’s so genuine is why she’s so likable.

DISCUSSION (24)

Under_Score > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 10:24

I remember when I was in third grade, before my county schools went broke, there were nine third grade teachers. There were so many teachers that our field day shirts were wild colors; my class shirt was teal, which was pretty fye. Then, fourth grade came, around the time of the nationwide recession, and it came to the point where they always threatened to cancel the big field trips associated with fourth and fifth grade.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 11:19

We have classroom size caps in our area - I think classrooms cap at something like 21? Beyond that if there isn’t enough for another full class at the same school, a teacher of the next similar grade up (for example 27 Grade Primary, so maybe 6 of them would go to the Grade 1 classroom) would take some of the kids and teach them their curriculum in a split-classroom.....I hate teaching in split classes as it’s hard enough to manage one grade level’s curriculum, let alone two...

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 11:31

I went to a school that kept the class sizes down to 12-15 and I tell you it made a world of difference. It makes it easier for each kid to get the attention they need, and the small class size helps keep cliques from forming.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 11:44

Shit, you only have 26?

Around here, they’re bragging about getting the mean down to 22. (Pay no attention to the 40 kids in a classroom built for 25.)

Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now) > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 12:03

I volunteer twice a year to teach economics to second graders in one of the schools our firm designed. I’m only there for an hour a week for six weeks. I t’s always a blast, but everything you said above is true. This year I had one kid who was just on a whole different level of thinking from the others, showed all the signs he was a gifted kid . I had another who was a class clown, but was sharp as a tack.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
09/09/2018 at 12:05

https://local.theonion.com/teacher-asks-students-to-split-into-2-groups-to-simulat-1819576860

Like this?

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 12:09

Keep in mind, performance in grade 4 isn’t indicative of future performance.

I was cutting holes in my pants around that time and spending a lot of time in the principal’s office.

I'd like to think I've changed a bit

smobgirl > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 12:30

I think I was the kid in point 5. I also vividly remember getting in trouble during Literature/English lessons because when the class read aloud by turns they were all so damn slow...I would tuck whatever book I was reading for fun in the crack of my textbook and entertain myself until it was my turn to read.

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
09/09/2018 at 13:51

Now you just cut holes in your pants when at home?

TheRealBicycleBuck > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
09/09/2018 at 13:59

I started out sitting in with the kids a grade up even though I was already the youngest in my class, barely making the cutoff date. The next year we moved to a different school district and they didn’t allow it. If they had, I would have graduated at 16 instead of 17.

HoustonRunner > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/09/2018 at 14:08

I have a fourth grader (and a sixth and two second graders), and I hope she is one of the good ones. We try to keep up with her teachers as best we can, but with 4 kids it is definitely a challenge. Do you to team teaching? Our Elementary does teams where the kids basically split the day between two teachers. I think that helps for both student and teacher (assuming the teachers communicate with each other).

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > fintail
09/09/2018 at 14:34

yeah, free time only.

I was such a bored, messed up little kid.

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
09/09/2018 at 14:38

I was a snarky backtalking jerk. But I got good grades and didn’t cause fights or real trouble, so teachers tolerated me. Maybe some things don’t change :)

Joe6pack > smobgirl
09/09/2018 at 15:56

I used to miss words on purpose because the kids who screwed up got all the attention.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
09/10/2018 at 17:40

In 4th grade I was a good kid and a hard worker.

... things have changed... slightly.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/10/2018 at 18:06

Wow; I really appreciate what you have written here. I am a teacher also: 8th grade math.

“that little girl is the devil ” If a teacher can even utter such a statement, then they should be drummed out of the profession, period.

My classroom is full of boys who my teacher cohort companions talk about how disruptive they are. I love them best. They give me zero problem, other than being annoying.

Routine, routine, routine. Daily. Even with my own daughter, the 17-YO senior.

This kind of reflection and the embrace of the challenging children and recognizing them for who they are is the single thing most lacking among our peers.

This is the signature at the bottom of my school email account, and I am mindful of Ms. 37-Year-Retire-To-Charlotte as I read it again:

The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Göthe

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
09/10/2018 at 18:09

True, but the relationship your 4th grade teacher had with you might have.

Then again, your time in the principal’s office might be an indicator of how effective — or not — out cookie cutter system of public education is. I am a secondary teacher and two of my three daughters got themselves out of high school early; one by a semester and one by more than a year because complete waste of time. I’d have done as well if I’d been offered any alternatives.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > fintail
09/10/2018 at 18:10

I was a snarky backtalking jerk.

Wait: was...?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > smobgirl
09/10/2018 at 18:12

Me. Not really, though. I just read books in class all the time and after a while, the teachers quit trying to get me to do anything at all.

Secondary school was a complete waste of time and fully half of the teachers were downright intimidated by me and I was nothing but a fat kid.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HoustonRunner
09/10/2018 at 18:14

The biggest thing you can do: read to your kids and make sure they know their products. One more time: read to them — or read with them -- and make sure they know their products. None of the rest will matter. Swear.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Bman76 (hates WS6 hoods, is on his phone and has 4 burners now)
09/10/2018 at 18:15

Yup. And the teachers, most of whom are emotionally unintelligent themselves, put these kids down and punish them and the kids develop a strong middle finger.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
09/10/2018 at 18:17

More than that, school needs to be about relationships first, teaching second. Educators are, after all, in loco parentis . And when you’ve 35 kids, that’s difficult.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/10/2018 at 18:26

In all of this, No. 3 is the one that bothers me most because that woman can do real harm to children. You’ve got your priorities straight; stick to them.

The daddy’s little princess kids are the ones I have the hardest time with. I can still have my way with those kids and their daddies, they just don’t realize that’s what’s actually happening when I do get my way .

Here’s a thing to remember: we can often get what we need , it may just not look like what we expected it to look like. So don’t limit yourself in that regard, by expecting things to look a certain way.

Drop me a line if you want, or not: oliphant.chuckerbutty@gmail.com

shop-teacher > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
09/10/2018 at 23:23

Yeah, I agree with all of those.