Education has definitely changed in the last decade; the students are taught new strategies in math, behavior reinforcement and how to handle behaviors. When it comes to school districts, there are so many different encounters or interactions between students and practicum students or student teachers. Both of us are currently helping out in school districts in Nebraska. Both of our experiences so far have been very similar but also different in their own ways.
Working with elementary students is like a roller coaster, but you don’t know when you are going to get off. One minute they are doing their work, then the next minute they are making jokes, making inappropriate actions or repeating phrases their parents say. Elementary students act so innocent when it comes to speaking because they usually don’t know what they are saying and what it actually means.
One way they are innocent until they aren’t is that, in the younger grades, they might say bad words, and you have to explain that we can’t say them. Once you explain it, they will stop saying it, but in the older grades, they say a bad word, and they will try to tell you that their parents allow them to say it. They won’t stop saying it, or they continue to rage-bait you until it doesn’t bother you anymore.
Elementary students have started to feed into 6-7 jokes like every other student. During reading time, you tell the students to flip to page 76. They all have to point out that 7-6 backward is 6-7. It starts distracting them from getting to the page they need to be at and takes about 5-10 minutes to get the students to process another task. Once a trend falls into older grades, it takes minutes to trickle down to the younger students. When jokes happen, you have to ignore them because if you engage, the behavior increases.
Meanwhile, middle schoolers will take any and every opportunity/opening you give them and run with it, whether it’s a never-ending tangent about Texas or a joke they take too far. The moment we let a side conversation become a classroom conversation, the room spirals out of control. Luckily, they still feed into the 6-7 trend, so to reel their attention back into the lesson, I just have to count to five and let them fall right into my trap.
They have since started a new 41 trend that is very similar, if not the same, as the 6-7 trend. Of course, they decided to do this right as we were entering our lesson on prime numbers, where 41 is the most common example used in that lesson, apparently. That’s been fun.
I have also single-handedly developed a new currency within the middle school, that currency being miniature resin ducks. The kids go berserk for these tiny ducks that cost me less than ten cents each from Amazon. They no longer wish for candy when they win a prize; they want ducks. They also beg me to make trades with them just so they can acquire their desired color of duck. I have since collected pencils, gum and drawings in exchange for ducks. It is also a great thing to pass out to those who volunteer in class or demonstrate critical thinking. Students who were once off task are now zoned in on the content in hopes of receiving a duck for their efforts.
Middle schoolers will also humble you with the most random topics and situations. For instance, we try to guess one of their classmates based on a baby picture of them. The students love it and want me to add one of my baby pictures as well. They then proceed to tell me that it will be easy to guess which one is mine because the picture will be in black and white. Mind you, I was born in 2003; these kids are only 10 years younger than me.
Another humbling moment was when we were learning about the greatest common factor (GCF), and a kid proceeded to tell me GCF actually stood for “greatest college failure”. So, let this be your indication that education is not for the weak, and if you can’t beat them, join them.
