I wonder if anyone else has a tried and true joke they use in the
classroom…
I do! It has been a joke
that started in a minor way when I had to illustrate a point on the chalkboard…and then evolved.
AND, out it came today. I started my lesson by passing out a sheet of
notes on genres and subgenres. We talked
about the meaning of the prefix sub and compared it to a submarine. Then I told the kids that I think of genres as
a big ocean and that there are five big oceans with many subgenres (submarines)
inside of each ocean. Then I told them
that I was going to be gracing them with some of my artwork and kind of went
off on a side chat that made the class and aide in awe over
my discussion of how I am an award winning artist. Then I went back to the genre/subgenre lesson and told the
kids to sit tight in their seats while I illustrated my ocean & submarine
analogy. Taking my time to pick out
colored chalk, the kids were squirming in their seats with anticipation! Next, just as I was about to draw I thought out loud, “Hey…no one asked how old I was when I received this award..” As the class started to ponder and guess in the
background, I drew some real rudimentary waves and blobs that were supposed to
be submarines. Finally I told the class
(and the bemused aide) that the award I won was a sticker from my kindergarten
teacher in kindergarten!.
Later on, when I noticed that the kids had not been out of their seats
the whole time during out 2 period block, I started an
eyes-closed-spinning-and-pointing-game to pick which was the next reader to
read our story from the textbook out loud.
It’s all so silly sounding, I know, but my sweet (and ever so
slightly immature) 6th graders ate it up (and learned!), which really made my day!
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