Not much happening today

[ellienihon]

I had the third graders, and my first day at work where I was actually frustrated with the kids. I think the honeymoon is just wearing off. Also, three classes with forty 8 year olds each is just a bit much. The main problem is that rather than just having one or two kids who are goofing off, I was dealing with 6 or 7. I hope that it will work better when I come back next time and we have class in their normal classroom. Anyway, finished class, and didn't have soccer because of rain, thank god. I had some prep work that I'm glad I got to finish, since I will be observed during my class tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, but mostly I'm kind of disappointed because I have to eat lunch with my supervisor rather than with the kids. I enjoy being around them outside of classtime. The other thing I'm a little disappointed about is that I'm not going to see the 4th graders at Shinooka this round because Thursday is Play day (as in actors and stages). I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but I have been asked to go, and will try to spend as much time with the fourth graders as I can.

I had a first at lunch today-- one girl came up and had me sign her notebook, and the next thing I know, half the class is lined up with pencils and notebooks. LOL Lunchtime finished before I got through all of them, so they asked me to promise to sign those who didn't get it this time when I come back. Oh, and it was raining, so all the kids were inside during recess. One of the fourth graders glommed onto me, and that was another interesting experience. She was cute, but I kind of wonder why she didn't have other fourth graders to hang out with.

Also heard a Japanese teacher calling a parent, and grilling them about whether the child was being bullied at school. Apparently he came to school and spent the entire morning crying in the hallway. In his class, he doesn't have any friends, but there is a girl in another class that he plays with. It's interesting to me that the teacher noticed exactly what was going on with this kid. Do Elementary teachers at home observe the students like this? I don't remember.

Comments

[nolly.livejournal.com]

One of the fourth graders glommed onto me, and that was another interesting experience. She was cute, but I kind of wonder why she didn't have other fourth graders to hang out with.

Could be any number of reasons -- she may have friends, but found the new foreign teacher more interesting. She may be unpopular for the same sort of reasons I was at that age -- I had just moved, coming from a very different school system, I was smart, but I was different, and shy, too.

Do Elementary teachers at home observe the students like this?

Depends on the teacher. The good ones notice, but how much they can do about it is also limited by school/district/state policy.

[thespeaker.livejournal.com]

Do Elementary teachers at home observe the students like this?

I think official US policy is to push the victim to transfer to another school under the grounds that the bully might sue if they took any direct action. (This, scarily, has happened a bunch of times.)

Similarly, bullied kids in other schools have been pushed to transfer because, as we all know, victims of bullying are going to bring guns in and kill everyone.

It's kind of scary how dumb some schools can be.

Seriously though, it depends a lot on the teachers involved. I've never personally seen a teacher being even close to that proactive. What happens once it is identified though tends to depend a lot on the staff at the school - some deal with it well, some are total morons. Pretty much like everything in life, I guess.

(All evidence used above is taken soley from the Weekly World News and the National Enquirer)