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conuly
I *did* get there in time for reading... but they weren't doing individual reading today, they were doing a shared story and then writing a text-to-self connection based on things they'd discussed during circle time.
I like how they managed that. Because it's definitely not feasible to always give EVERY child a chance to participate, at various times they asked the students to talk over their ideas with their neighbors instead. A little noisier, but everybody got to say their ideas aloud and think it through that way.
Midway through the story, there was an announcement. The gist of it was "Look, the fire marshal told us you can't have more than 20% of the wall covered with papers. If they can't go on the bulletin board, make sure 80% of the wall is uncovered. Yes, even the windows and doors". That's easy enough, right?
It took at least three minutes. That's not counting the 45 seconds of "This is an announcement", which aside from being pointless, ran something like "Students, teachers. Oh, and parents, please pay attention to the following announcement. Please stop all instruction so you can pay attention to this important announcement. I'm sorry for the interruption, and I'll be brief, but you must listen to this announcement. I know this is disruptive, and I apologize". She apologized again at the end. There would've been less to apologize for if she'd shut up faster! And to all this I say, if you make so many announcements that your staff and students habitually ignore them, stop making so many announcements!
And then the meat of the announcement was repeated at least three times. The first repetition makes sense, because the first time the secretary made her little statement it sounded an awful lot like "The fire marshal is here to inspect, and god knows we don't want to get dinged with a citation, so move that paper off your walls before they show up to your classroom". Honest, but it doesn't really have that caring "safety first" (said no less than four times during this interruption!) attitude that people like to hear in regards to their children. So she rephrased, emphasizing that of COURSE they care about SAFETY. And then she said it again. AND AGAIN.
And you know what? I don't know about the fire safety aspect, but from an aspie aspect, I think they're right. The walls were covered in bright, competing posters. That includes the blackboard, which they don't use (when they need to write something down they do it on a big pad, which strikes me as wasteful of both money and space) so it's just another wall. There's a big colorful poster of the days of the week, and another of the months of the year. There's a big colorful calendar that they do every day. There's a big chart showing the daily schedule - and I don't care if you DO take Italian at 10:03, it looks more cluttered to write that! They aren't going to class on their own, just put 10:00 and be done with it. There's an attendance chart and a chore chart and a behavior chart. There's two lists of rules. There's an alphabet strip above the board - and right below it a poster by the same company with the same letters and same pictures illustrating them. There are three posters illustrating character definitions. There's a poster at the top which I think is there to cover peeling paint about how great the class is. There are THREE posters about the March of Dimes walk they did on Halloween. There's a poster with their birthmonths and one listing who lost a tooth when. There's a tiny space carved out for the example of what they're writing today - but it's so hidden that the kids have to LOOK for it every time they need to check the spelling of "connection" or "turkey". There's a map of the US, too high up to be useful. There's a model clock for learning time. There are two dangly "fall" decorations, and I don't know what-all else.
Oh, and in the last bit of space left, there's the kids' work. That's positively restful compared to the rest of it, which is all bright colors going every which way. It was exhausting looking at the front of the room! Much of that stuff is useful, I'm sure - but is it really all useful ALL DAY LONG? I wanted to go through and clear the walls and paint them a nice, calming color. Seriously, sometimes less really is more.
So when Evangeline was trying to write her piece, her teacher prompted her to "keep writing" - but it was clear to me, having had my eye on her specifically this whole time, that Evangeline hadn't STOPPED writing. It was just taking her a long time to find the part she was copying the spelling off of, and the rest of it must be amply distracting.
Anyway, at this point we got to see how all the other grown-ups act. The room was suddenly abuzz with parents trying to help their kid do work (despite us all having been exhorted NOT to do this in the form home). And what a bunch of buttinskies they are! Their kid can't put pencil to paper, some of them, without their mom already spelling the next word. Which made me look like a terrible aunt, but honestly, it's Evangeline's job to be a first grader, not mine.
It didn't look like Eva wrote less than all the other students, or particularly worse, but I don't know. I didn't look over all shoulders.
I did say something to Evangeline. She'd complained to me that her seatmate is "always complaining" when Evangeline lets her shoulder or pencil get onto her desk "even just a little". At the time, I'd told her that Evangeline should stay in her own desk, which annoyed her. Shouldn't I be on her side all the time???? Today I saw the situation... and said it more firmly when I left at snacktime*. No wonder the kid gets mad, Evangeline lets her pencil case go halfway across her neighbor's workspace!
*I don't care what you think, Goldfish crackers do not constitute a healthy snack. Am I the only person left who hears "healthy snack" and assumes the correct answer is "fresh fruit"?
I like how they managed that. Because it's definitely not feasible to always give EVERY child a chance to participate, at various times they asked the students to talk over their ideas with their neighbors instead. A little noisier, but everybody got to say their ideas aloud and think it through that way.
Midway through the story, there was an announcement. The gist of it was "Look, the fire marshal told us you can't have more than 20% of the wall covered with papers. If they can't go on the bulletin board, make sure 80% of the wall is uncovered. Yes, even the windows and doors". That's easy enough, right?
It took at least three minutes. That's not counting the 45 seconds of "This is an announcement", which aside from being pointless, ran something like "Students, teachers. Oh, and parents, please pay attention to the following announcement. Please stop all instruction so you can pay attention to this important announcement. I'm sorry for the interruption, and I'll be brief, but you must listen to this announcement. I know this is disruptive, and I apologize". She apologized again at the end. There would've been less to apologize for if she'd shut up faster! And to all this I say, if you make so many announcements that your staff and students habitually ignore them, stop making so many announcements!
And then the meat of the announcement was repeated at least three times. The first repetition makes sense, because the first time the secretary made her little statement it sounded an awful lot like "The fire marshal is here to inspect, and god knows we don't want to get dinged with a citation, so move that paper off your walls before they show up to your classroom". Honest, but it doesn't really have that caring "safety first" (said no less than four times during this interruption!) attitude that people like to hear in regards to their children. So she rephrased, emphasizing that of COURSE they care about SAFETY. And then she said it again. AND AGAIN.
And you know what? I don't know about the fire safety aspect, but from an aspie aspect, I think they're right. The walls were covered in bright, competing posters. That includes the blackboard, which they don't use (when they need to write something down they do it on a big pad, which strikes me as wasteful of both money and space) so it's just another wall. There's a big colorful poster of the days of the week, and another of the months of the year. There's a big colorful calendar that they do every day. There's a big chart showing the daily schedule - and I don't care if you DO take Italian at 10:03, it looks more cluttered to write that! They aren't going to class on their own, just put 10:00 and be done with it. There's an attendance chart and a chore chart and a behavior chart. There's two lists of rules. There's an alphabet strip above the board - and right below it a poster by the same company with the same letters and same pictures illustrating them. There are three posters illustrating character definitions. There's a poster at the top which I think is there to cover peeling paint about how great the class is. There are THREE posters about the March of Dimes walk they did on Halloween. There's a poster with their birthmonths and one listing who lost a tooth when. There's a tiny space carved out for the example of what they're writing today - but it's so hidden that the kids have to LOOK for it every time they need to check the spelling of "connection" or "turkey". There's a map of the US, too high up to be useful. There's a model clock for learning time. There are two dangly "fall" decorations, and I don't know what-all else.
Oh, and in the last bit of space left, there's the kids' work. That's positively restful compared to the rest of it, which is all bright colors going every which way. It was exhausting looking at the front of the room! Much of that stuff is useful, I'm sure - but is it really all useful ALL DAY LONG? I wanted to go through and clear the walls and paint them a nice, calming color. Seriously, sometimes less really is more.
So when Evangeline was trying to write her piece, her teacher prompted her to "keep writing" - but it was clear to me, having had my eye on her specifically this whole time, that Evangeline hadn't STOPPED writing. It was just taking her a long time to find the part she was copying the spelling off of, and the rest of it must be amply distracting.
Anyway, at this point we got to see how all the other grown-ups act. The room was suddenly abuzz with parents trying to help their kid do work (despite us all having been exhorted NOT to do this in the form home). And what a bunch of buttinskies they are! Their kid can't put pencil to paper, some of them, without their mom already spelling the next word. Which made me look like a terrible aunt, but honestly, it's Evangeline's job to be a first grader, not mine.
It didn't look like Eva wrote less than all the other students, or particularly worse, but I don't know. I didn't look over all shoulders.
I did say something to Evangeline. She'd complained to me that her seatmate is "always complaining" when Evangeline lets her shoulder or pencil get onto her desk "even just a little". At the time, I'd told her that Evangeline should stay in her own desk, which annoyed her. Shouldn't I be on her side all the time???? Today I saw the situation... and said it more firmly when I left at snacktime*. No wonder the kid gets mad, Evangeline lets her pencil case go halfway across her neighbor's workspace!
*I don't care what you think, Goldfish crackers do not constitute a healthy snack. Am I the only person left who hears "healthy snack" and assumes the correct answer is "fresh fruit"?
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 06:22 pm (UTC)The long rambling announcements at random from the loudspeaker and the clutter of chaotic colors all over the front of the room must make that classroom a torture chamber for any child with sensory defensiveness, and must disrupt the focus of every child in the room, Aspie or not. Good for the Fire Marshall making them take all that junk off the walls; it does sound like a fire hazard as well as a distraction.
Don't know what the teachers were thinking, to set themselves up to have to compete with so much else for the attention of their pupils. Whoever's making these endless announcements maybe needs to hear a recording of herself in order to get a clue and start writing down what she's going to say, rather than just babbling into the microphone.
You can tell Evangeline that you are on her side all the time - that, being an adult, you take a longer view than she does of what is best for her. Would she want you to let her grow up into the kind of person who rudely takes more than her fair share? How does she feel about people who don't respect her space? Does she think most people like that kind of person, or want to work with them?
Insisting that she do what is right, and not enabling weasely excuses of "just a little bit", IS being on her side by helping her to grow up to be a woman of strong character. She's going to need that, in the world her generation will be inheriting, and it's not too soon to tell her so.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 11:04 pm (UTC)Most of what was covering the board would've been much neater and less distracting if it had simply been written on the board.
And as for the announcements, in fairness, I don't know how many announcements they normally have. Having to make this sort of announcement during open house is not the best time to put it together! But for crying out loud, make an outline and write out what you'll say beforehand, then you only say it once.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 07:46 pm (UTC)And I'm so with you on not helping so much with a kid. If they can't learn it, they need help but they can't learn if you don't let them TRY! Gah!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 11:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, there are plenty of healthy, portable snacks out there, it's just that goldfish crackers aren't one of them. If you like cheese, give your kid cheese!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-14 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 01:56 am (UTC)2. There's another thing. Why does fruit need to be cut up all the time nowadays?
no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 09:20 am (UTC)For a number of reasons.
1. If you serve fruit WHOLE, someone might take it into their head to cut it up THEMSELVES, which would mean they would have a WEAPON. (Oh noes! Lock down the school!)
2. Lazy SOBs who won't bite into an apple (for instance) if it isn't already cored and sliced and practically prechewed.
3. Conditioning people to the nanny state (kind of a bounce off reason #1).
4. Portion size. A large apple is more than one serving, and so is a large orange.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-15 01:57 am (UTC)