You can learn from anyone even from your enemy

IV. When things go wrong in class

Children are very enthusiastic. But if they do not want to do anything, or they are not interested in something they will show you it.

As teachers we must know that sometimes the things are not going to go in the way we want or we expect. We have to be preparing for any kind of situation that can affect the teaching or the learning process.

Internal disturbance: once, two kids were fighting because one of them didn’t want to share the colors with the other one. I talked to them and I said that they had to share the colors because there weren’t more colors. I said that one could use some colors and then they could interchange the colors. They listened to me. And everyone continued working.

In another occasion, three boys didn’t want to do the activity that I required them to do. One boy wanted to work, but the other boys were convincing him not to work. So I started asking questions about the topic, and I said who answers the questions is going to accumulate points and at the end of the month I will say who got more points. I was asking some questions, and then I said “Ok now you have to continue working in the activity” everyone continued working. It was a successful activity.

You have extra time: In my teaching practicum, I was one hour with kinder 5 and another hour with kinder 6, but the same day.

Once, children from kinder 6 didn’t go to classes. I didn’t know, and I was preparing for teaching one hour per group. The teacher told me if I could stay the two hours with her group because she had to do other things. I had to say yes, but the problem was that I didn’t teach the same to both groups. I had a different lesson for each group. During the recess I had to think in an emergency activity. We entered to the classroom, and I said that they were so cleaver because they have been working excellent. I said “Now we are going to sing a song” everyone started to sing with me. It was head and shoulders’ song, so everyone learned very well the parts of the body. Then we played a game. I asked one of the children to go to the front and I said him or her one of the parts of the body. He or she had to touch that part in his or her body. The other children had to guess what part was.

I think that the tips presented on chapter 8 are very helpful. For example, when an activity doesn’t work is better to stop the activity than trying to get it work.

Also, to have emergency activities is a useful tip. When two or more children are distracting the whole class because they are fighting or doing something else, we have to take them out and talk with them.

By: Yohana Burgos