Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Coteaching woes

one of the troubles I have with coteaching in three different classrooms is the freeze signal. most of the teachers at my school have these fabulous chimes we all bought from responsive classroom training (I have my own from my days in the classroom). the chime makes the most pleasant yet loud calming noise and each teacher has trained their children to freeze when they hear the sound of the bell. this is fabulous. yet each teacher has trained their class to freeze in a specific position- some freeze with their hands on their shoulders, others put a finger on their lip and one hand in the air, and others have their students fold their arms over their chest. this is all fabulous for the classes and it works like a charm. except I feel like a mouse in some sick lab experiment. I hear the bell and without thinking throw my hands into one of the quiet positions, then look around at the confused stares and realize i'm the only one with a hand in the air. there is nothing like having five year olds whisper about you as "crazy mrs lipstick flappin her arms again"

if I have a mental breakdown this year it may be from the bells. then again, there are many other reasons that may lead to a break down. the bells just might push me over the edge.

1 comment:

Snippety Gibbet said...

I didn't know about the bell signal. Before Christmas I brought in a bell as an attention getter. The first time I rang it and the kids threw their hands on their shoulders, I was highly puzzled about what the heck they were doing. All I could do was laugh at them.