Make 'em Laugh!

I love humor. I enjoy silliness. I need laughter - especially at work. I know teaching is serious business. But geez, it helps me AND the students to employ some fun throughout the day!

Things that are fun and funny in my classroom include: Groucho glasses w/ moustaches, red clown noses, tiaras and crowns, Sponge Bob cartoons, you tube animal videos, Garfield and Peanuts comics, Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants books, games (Twister is a favorite), hula hoops, squeaky pet toys, whistles, magic wands, and dance music. I try to tap into these supplies on a daily basis. It relieves pressure, re-energizes spirit and lifts moods.

Some of the best times to interject humor are during the stress times. Testing is tough for any student, and in special ed., even tougher. It helps to ease the classroom climate when the children can take a stretch break, grab a comic book, crash on some pillows, snack and giggle. Everybody feels better. I find this prevents many outbursts and melt-downs during standardized testing weeks.

Food For Thought

Many of the students I teach are transported to school. They take the 'short bus', which is a term for special education busing. A majority live far from the school that provides services, as many neighborhood school don't have special education teachers, speech therapists, O.T.s or school psychologists on site. The routes can take considerable time, and might necessitate a child to be picked up quite early in the morning. If school starts at 8 a.m., a student might have to leave home by 6:30 a.m. in order to attend. This means there are some mighty hungry kids at my door when the bell rings.

I started providing snacks for students early on in my career. I don't get reimbursed for the expenditure, but it is SO worth it. If I don't give the kids something to eat during the day their energy flags, they grow listless and inattentive or irritable and even irrational. Well placed mini-meals throughout the day make a big difference in classroom behaviors. I also use snacks as enticements (okay - bribes) for testing. Special ed. kids HATE standardized tests! The tests are mandated to be at grade level, even though the students’ ability levels are two to four years below level in my learning handicapped class. This keeps them at a level of frustration and discomfort for all the days of testing. Well timed snacks help bring some comfort and self-care to the children.

Never assume the students have enough to eat at home, or that the cafeteria will take care of their hunger. The days are long and arduous for all students. Kids deserve treats - and it helps their brains as well as their attitudes.

Show Me The Money!

When I first started teaching, I was shocked to discover many of my students didn't know the worth of coins, or the number of coins it took to make a dollar. Years later, I find the students still don’t come to school with this info. It doesn’t seem to be a focus at school, or a habit at home. It still shocks me, but now I'm doing something about it. Every morning I give my class 'Money Math' activities to do. I hand out handfuls of plastic coins and have them sort and count them. Then they add the coins together to get the total amount. The first month or two of school this requires a great deal of teacher assistance, but the students love it when they learn it. Some individuals need desk top coin charts to remind them a quarter is 25 cents, a dime is ten, etc., and I keep posters in place throughout the year with the coin faces, values and a break-down of coins per dollar (4 quarters = one dollars, 10 dimes = one dollar, and so on). This is a bell-work or morning warm-up activity that the class can, after some time, so independently. I also put time problems for them to solve ("What time would it be 40 minutes from now?") and there are plastic clocks available for assistance. The students answer the time problems in analog and digital fashion. The class learns how many minutes are in an hour and how many hours are in a day. I require the class to learn the days of the week, months of the year, the years in a decade, as well. Wall calendars, personal agendas with calendars and posted reminders help keep this information accessible. No matter what grade the students are in, I find these activities to be relevant, and necessary to know, so each child can function with ease in society at large. Plus, they find it fun.