Monday, February 4, 2008

my terms or your terms?

many of my kids put most of their energy into trying to control the situation around them. This may include refusing to move when asked to line up, refusing to pick up a book and come to guided reading, or doing exactly the opposite of what the teacher asks him to do. (And at times it comes in much more aggresive actions as well)

And I realize this is because there is very little, if anything, in their lives they have any control over. So it makes sense, but it can be ridiculously annoying/frustrating when you are trying to teach a classroom of kiddos.

today one of my buddies was working on type to learn in the computer lab. he kept getting bored with the program in front of him and would play around with the other options inside type to learn. (I had to sit beside him to make sure he didn't exit out of the program all together and play around on the internet.) The classmate seated beside him had found his way into some notebook program inside of type to learn and was playing around in it when the classroom teacher came over and re-directed him.
Well, my buddy was determined to show her. He started loudly stating, "I do it, I do it" and went into the exact same program his friend had been asked to leave. However, just to prove it was ok, he then went about typing the exact same key strokes as the program had been asking him to do (and that he had refused to do seconds earlier). fjf, frf, juj, ujuj.

ok, so do i stop him and force him to get out of the program he "wasn't allowed in" because of the rule, or do i ignore him and let him go on typing the lesson we expected him to do when he walked in the door that day.

i ignored it and let him type away, frf, fjf, juju... it might have been the wrong decision, but if we're not going to learn on my terms i might as well try to reach him on his terms...

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