Candy for Me

In my classroom there is a candy jar that sits in the corner of my file cabinet and taunts kids all day long. When I reach for it, eyes light up with joy at the possibility of what might be. Though some teaching books tell you that rewarding students for knowledge or good behavior is a bad idea, I've discovered that the chance for a jolly rancher or a tootsie roll gets most students excited and their brains activated.

The candy jar comes out typically once a week, or at least it used to.

One of my greatest pet peeves of teaching is having to repeat myself. My favorite (being sarcastic) version of this is when a student has their hand up while I'm explaining something only to ask the very question I just answered. They were apparently focusing all their brain energy on keeping their hand in the air rather than listening.

While this has always bothered me, it has not been a major problem until this year. My second block class has the most repeat offenders and up until recently have been stuck as to how to solve this problem. but oh how that has changed.

One day, after answering the same question three times in a row, it struck me. I glanced over at the candy jar on my file cabinet and it was as if God himself said "Jessica, candy for me." And thus became my new favorite statement and response to repeat questioners: "candy for me."

Now when a student asks a question I've already answered, I walk over to the candy jar, select the most desired kind of candy out of it and put that candy in a jar on my desk. That candy is no longer available for students to get but instead for my own eating pleasure. This is like pure torture for my students. The best part is when one students ask a question that's already been answered and several friends will whisper "candy for her."

It might be semi-mean but my goodness it has been successful. I've probably cut the repeat questions in half and I've also got a personal candy jar full of great goodies "for me."

he's THAT kid

We're one quarter into my second year of teaching and I've discovered a new pet peeve. In general, students who cannot figure out answers to test chalk it up to their own lack of studying. I say in general because this does not apply to Bert (who's name has been changed to protect his at times annoying identity). Bert is very smart and I've come to discover, a little bit too sure of himself. Every time (and I do mean EVERY TIME) we have a test, Bert encounters something that doesn't look familiar on a test and proceeds to accuse me of testing something that has not been covered in the material.

Last week it was "well I don't remember reading the term "man-made" anywhere in our text." I said "wow that's pretty amazing that you can remember that since your test is over more than 100 pages of reading." he was wrong and did in fact discover the term "man-made"

Today it was "Mrs. Haslam, NONE of our vocabulary cards have the word "rebirth" on them. I know that for sure." I replied "just because it says use a vocab word doesn't mean I necessarily gave you the definition of that word, you might need to know the context." He mutters as I walk away "well I know the book didn't use the word rebirth anywhere." shocker: he found it after he turned his test in.

It is seriously all I can do not to freak out when Bert feels the need to make his lack of studying my fault. You'd think after being proved wrong every single time, he'd come to learn that I'm not the one making the mistakes. you'd think.