I Am Bored And Ms Olinde Is Mean

Well, it turns out that today might not have been my best day of teaching.  I've got to say, I'm a little bit surprised by this fact.  It felt like an okay day, school-wise.  My fourth graders got to examine spores and see a celery stalk's water transport system.  Some even got to play my newly invented game, "Plant Survivor: Photosynthesis Edition"...Where 7 Chosen Cards Determine Your Final Fate.  The right ingredients to photosynthesize or not to photosynthesize?  That is the question.

In fifth grade, my students got to work on the children's book about cells they're writing for their kindergarten buddies, and we did a Close Reading on the carpet about viruses.

That's where I made the mistake.

Close Readings always take a chunk of time, usually somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes.  I've found that trying to do it as a whole class is disastrous, so we've taken to breaking up into groups and rotating through different activities.  Less than 9 kids in a group seems to be the sweet spot.  Enough to have a functional conversation that allows them to break down the text together.  Not so many people that someone is getting away with silence or spending their time drawing tornadoes on their paper.

Today, the tornadoes happened.  I was trying to get through the reading activity in two shifts to save time (12 kids each), and it just didn't work as well as it usually does.  The text was a little harder, too, and with an increased group size, my reading level range was just too wide.  My lower readers got frustrated by the pace.  My higher readers got frustrated by the pace.  I had people playing with pencils, doodling, talking, staring at the floor...  But I didn't realize the extent until a student brought me one of the clipboards we'd been using, where someone had written, "I am bored and Ms Olinde is mean."

Kind of stings, I'm not going to lie.

I don't do well with the moniker of "mean."  Personally, I consider myself to be a fair and understanding teacher who wants the best for my students and regularly acts in accordance with that desire.  Yes, I get short.  Yes, I'll call you out in front of everyone if you're goofing off in my class.  I'll try to do it kindly, but you kind of brought it on yourself, kid.  "Strict" and "tough" are more what I'm going for.  We humans don't get too far by being coddled.  I'll have your back, but I won't spoon feed you.

The phrase "I am bored" just frustrates me.  What exactly during the period was so boring?  The fact that you got to work on a children's book, which gives you significant freedom in terms of design and creativity, as well as clear parameters in terms of what's expected?  Or maybe it was the twenty minutes on the rug where you learned how viruses are like body snatchers and use your cells to multiply themselves?

To me, bored in my class means one of two things: (1) you are not disciplined enough to accept new information in a straight forward, non-game approach (welcome to life) or (2) you have not yet figured out how to bring learning to your own level.  For some students today, the Close Reading was barely above reading level.  In that case, dig into the content and figure out what you didn't already know, or how it relates to things you've seen or heard about before.  For some students, the Close Reading was well above their reading level.  In that case, use the support I'm giving you through my questioning to dig deeper and be successful in understanding the passage.  Ask questions.  Make analogies.  Make it fun for yourself.

Most likely, my Clipboard Culprit was just upset because they were having a tough time understanding the article, and instead of accepting the challenge (and my support), they avoided their confusion by playing around.  And I probably called them out on it.  If that's the case, then maybe it wasn't such a day teaching day after all.  Challenging students is my job.  But I'll still keep my groups small from here on out, just in case.