The Unavoidability of Celebrating Everyone's Success

On Friday of last week, in the after school program, I led an art project. The art project was to make egg carton spiders. An egg carton spider has the bottom of a single egg compartment and has 4 pipe cleaners that are cut in half to form its 8 legs. They can be glued or taped to cut out egg compartment. This is an example of what it looks like:

I'm trying to recognize interesting ideas that the students come up with. I'm trying to do that so that I can support them. However, in some cases, I am particularly surprised with an idea that a student has. For example, one of the students that I was making the egg carton spider with made a small hole in the base of the egg compartment, lowered a string into the hole, and tied a knot. Also, she made the legs a quarter the size of the pipe cleaners rather than a half. She made her egg carton spider into a hangable ornament rather than just a stationary desk occupant as I originally intended. Honestly, I liked her idea more than what I originally came up with. I liked her idea so much, that I asked her if I could take a pic of it on my phone.

As soon as I did that, a kindergartener sitting next to me said, "Hey, you're supposed to like all of our work!" Immediately after she said that, I was thinking, "Crap.... busted." So immediately, I look at what she is doing with her egg carton spider. She was using a half sized pipe cleaner to poke a hole into the base of the egg carton spider. She bent the bottom of the pipe cleaner to a 90 degree angle so that it was pressed against the roof under the base and curved the top of the pipe cleaner that was above the base. That way, she could carry it around. So, I gave her genuine praise for that.

This experience has brought me on my guard in a new way. Generally, when I give someone praise, I say something vague like "wow... that's cool." However, I tend to compliment with precision if I'm genuinely surprised with an idea that a student implements. I need to start elevating the precision of my praise for all students rather than for just those that surprise me. The level of precision I communicate my praise with must be the same for all students. That's what I need to do if I want to maintain a positive rapport with all of my students rather than just the few that I speak precisely with.

Otherwise, if I praise certain students with precision, but I don't praise other students with that same level of precision, I would guess that would cause some students to become jealous. I think that jealousy can be expressed in various ways, but none of which are positive. I will consider what I think are the worst case scenarios. One way is that one student will fight with a student that he/she is jealous of. Another way is that the student who is jealous of other students will break down emotionally from not getting the same kind of approval from me that I would give to other students. That is my understanding of why unavoidably, I must make the level of precision in my praise equal for all students.

The Aftermath of Too Much Personal Attention

I've learned first hand why you shouldn't give any particular student too much personal attention. I need to give you some background. In general, the 3rd graders that I work with are extremely loving. They always tell me how much they appreciate my help. Some of them show their affection in ways beyond just saying "thank you, Mr. Auto" though.

There's this one particular student that frequently gets out of her seat while my mentor teacher is teaching a lesson. She gets out of her seat to walk over to me and ask me a question. I would guess that she does this about 4 times a day. It annoys me. Then, another student walks up to me from their seat to ask me a question. I put the brakes on as soon as that happened. When this additional student walked up to me, I said, "If you stay in your seat, look at me, and raise your hand, then I will come to you." She walked back to her seat and did as I asked. I had to run through this procedure with two additional students beyond the first.

Further, while the teacher is doing a read aloud of their current novel, sometimes she wants to read her book while sitting beside me. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate that she is so comfortable with me. But, her level of comfort has unintended consequences. Afterward, another student walks up to me and asks me if I can sit beside her group's table. Are you seeing the pattern?

If I show one student too much personal attention (such as in the ways just previously mentioned), then other students want that same attention. I think that I understand their perspective and I think it is logical to some extent. If I can show one particular student individual attention in the way that I do, why can't I show that same attention to other students? That is as far as the logic of that perspective goes. Like everyone else, I have my limits. In other words, it would be unmanageable, and thus impossible to show personal attention to everyone. If you provide personal attention to one student, they will expect you to provide them personal attention as well. So, the longer you spend in providing any one student too much personal attention, the greater likelihood there is that other students will desire and seek that same attention. In order to not provide any of your students misguided expectations, that is why you need to make sure that you do not give any one student too much personal attention.

Talking to a Student about Religion

I had an awkward experience in class today. Here's the background. The 3rd graders were working on a poster for Charlotte's Web. All they needed to do was write a quote and accompany it with an illustration. I was just monitoring their tables to make sure that they are staying on task. There seemed to be some minor conflict at one of the tables. So, I hovered on over...

One of the students was complaining, "Mr. Auto. He doesn't believe in god." My reply was "So what? Let him believe what he wants to." The student that was accused asks me, "Mr. Auto...? Do you believe in god?" I was extremely hesitant in answering that question. To be clear, I never gave him an answer. I just told him that I can't answer that question. Unfortunately, that made him even more curious. Now, he was begging me to tell him. "Please, Mr. Auto? Tell me. Why can't you tell me?" In the end, I told him that I would give him an answer about whether I can tell him whether I believe in god. Seriously. He sees that I take notes of my observations in class, so he even insisted several times that I write a personal reminder since the next time that I will see him is on Wednesday. He watched me write it. Here is what it reads: "On Wednesday, Oct. 12 2011, I will tell [undisclosed student name] whether I will answer his question about whether I believe in god." He was giggling after every other word that I wrote. I found that interesting. Oh well... The joke's on him because I'm just going to tell him that I won't give him an answer :-P.

Going back to how I hesitated in answering his question, I wasn't hesitating because I didn't know what my answer was. My position is clear and firm. I classify myself as an apathetic agnostic (i.e. I don't know whether a god exists and I don't care). I hesitated because I have no idea what his parents think. I don't know how they desire to raise him. If I told him that I didn't know whether a god exists and I don't care, the worst case scenario is that out of his admiration for me, he starts copying my lack of religious beliefs. Further, let's say his parents do believe in god. Now, they'll be pissed that I instilled this spirit of godlessness into their child. In the end, I basically hesitated for the sake of practicality. I don't want his parents coming after me in case we are in disagreement.

Also, especially with children, word travels fast. Even if I wouldn't be in disagreement with his parents, he could tell other students who would tell their parents. And, it could so happen that THOSE parents ARE believers in god. So now, they might think I'm putting THEIR children at risk. So yea... while teaching, all in the name of practicality, I keep information pertaining to religion to myself.

I gotta be honest. If I was only visiting this school for one day and he approached me with that question, I would totally tell him what my view was. I would tell him in order to give him a different perspective to consider and because I prefer to be honest, which includes stating what my views actually are.

Anyway, what do you think? Under any circumstances at all, would you express your religious beliefs to a 3rd grade student who asked you whether you believe in god?

Introducing a New Student

A couple weeks back, a new student joined the 3rd grade class that I'm student teaching in. She's from Chicago. I noticed that my current mentor, Mr. Agajan, gave her a lot of attention. I don't disagree with that. But, it's still insightful to answer the question of why he does so. Before I think about why he gave her so much attention, I should explain how he gave her attention.

Sample of the First Day Introduction

All of this happened on the single day that she arrived. He put an emphasis on writing her name and having her loudly state how to write it. He made an exercise of the entire class pronouncing her name in chorus. He had her talk about the previous city that she lived in and school that she went to. We looked it up on a world map. He asked her to confirm for the class whether some of what Chabot Elementary and Mr. Agajan does are things that she is familiar with (I can't think of specific examples right now). He put a special emphasis over repeating all of the rules for the new student.

Consequences of the Introduction

Ok. That is what I can provide by way of examples in terms of how he focused attention on the new student. So, what exactly does giving all this attention to the new student do? It probably makes her seem pretty special since everything being talked about is her. As such, it definitely makes her feel more welcomed than alienated.

Also, by talking about the city she lived in, the school that she went to, and how Chabot Elementary and the city she lives in now is similar, it makes her transition to a new city and school feel less foreign. That gives her the idea that she knows how to deal with this seemingly foreign city and school.

The reason for repeating the rules is simple. Everyone else already follows them. If she doesn't follow them, her actions will sometimes conflict with the other students. This will not be conducive to a collaborative or welcoming classroom environment.

Justification for the Focused Attention

There is a good reason for why this new student is being given so much attention. It is easier to teach a student who feels welcomed, doesn't feel like they are in a foreign place, and gets along with the other students than a student who is not all of those things. Why? If she feels more welcomed, then she will be more inclined to both help others and receive help from others (whether that means adults or peers). If the place she lives in and the place she goes to school at doesn't seem foreign, then she will definitely not be distracted by worries of such things while she is in class. Lastly, if she gets along with the other students (due to following the established rules), then they will perceive each other to be on equal terms as far as behavioral expectations go. So, one less thing (a pretty ubiquitous thing throughout the day at that) to bicker about.

Anyway, that is a summary of what I think giving this new student so much attention accomplished and ultimately, why it was done. Feel free to let me know whether I'm missing anything.