Yesterday, since the Atticus and Samuel were both still sick, I taught all 6 boys by myself. On our way to class, they all took off ahead of me, and as I neared our classroom, from the hallway I could hear a chant: "Fight, fight, fight, fight . . ." When I opened the door, two of the boys were throwing punches at each other, while the rest of the crowd circled the two and continued, "fight, fight, fight . . ." That took a minute to break up, leaving one of the "contendors" in tears. Then, I looked around the room, and realized that there were no chairs!! What else could go wrong? On top of that, I had brought a heaping plate of cookies (for bribes, of course--I knew I would need reinforcments). I couldn't leave the acrimonious boys together, nor could I leave the cookies, and I really needed the chairs if I hoped for any order during our hour of class time. It was like a real life application of that old riddle about how to get a chicken, a basket of eggs, and a fox across the river on a boat that could only hold two of the three per trip. Thankfully, someone from the hall came to my aid and brought the chairs. After that, with my reign of cookies, everything went smoothly, and we actually had one of our best classes yet.
![[Comments]](/nb//themes/Default/comments.png "2 comments")
(2) Mon Dec 15 2003 11:29 Out of Control:
I haven't mentioned that Dave and I have been subbing for a Sunday School class of 6 hooligan boys for the past 4 Sundays. This class is notorious for its "energy," and has burned through a handful of teachers over the course of the year. We knew we had trouble on your hands the first Sunday when we saw two things: a) The three-year-old Sunbeam class was better behaved than our class in Sharing Time. b) There was a line-up of adults waiting outside the Primary room after church was over with a knowing smile: "So--how'd it go?"
- Comments:
Posted by Susie at Mon Dec 15 2003 12:22
During one of my stints as a Primary teacher I learned to pick my battles- the battle of kids actually sitting in chairs lost to having them actually pay attention. We did have to have rules about sitting on or under the tables, though.
Posted by Alyson at Mon Dec 15 2003 16:10
Yeah, I actually tried the "no chair" thing last week, but that one freedom kind of fed the entropy.