Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Adventures in Primary Teaching
So Matt and I have been teaching the nine-year-old's in primary for several months now and it can be such a challenge sometimes! The boys are constantly trying to be silly and make each other laugh. We often hear comments like " um..uhh...if Samuel the Lamanite was being shot at by arrows, would the arrows hit his bed? he he ha ha" What the heck does that even mean?! There is one child in particular that just...exasperates me. I know she has some learning disabilities, and I try to take that into account, but sometimes, I'm just not sure how to handle her. A couple of weeks ago we were practicing for our primary program and the poor girl was in a terrible mood! I was offending her left and right with my attempts at keeping her from breaking a chair or disrupting the practice. At one point she said, "That's the last straw!!" and angrily grabbed a piece of paper and started EATING it! I practically had to beg her not to eat the paper with her part in the program on it. This has become a new habit of hers. She's always eating paper! Should I let her eat paper? Should I just ignore this behavior? How do I distract her? I've tried talking about her pretty dress etc. Doesn't work. Thankfully, she really likes Matt and she listens to him most of the time. He has been sick these past couple of weeks, so I was on my own. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas for keeping nine-year-old's interested in primary, I would LOVE to hear them. I think I'm better off with two-year-old's.
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4 comments:
I taught the 4 year olds and they were a challenge as well. I had this little girl that would always try to hit people if she didn't like them. She never even had a real reason. I don't really have any advice, because I don't think I did that well myself. Good luck though, I feel for you.
Is this the same girl that doesn't usually like men, except for Matt? If so, she obviously has some issues that are beyond most people's ability to handle. I don't have any real advice, but take heart, there are only 2 months left until she's in someone else's class. I know that sounds horrible, so in the meantime, praya and ask Heavenly Father what to do concerning her as well as what you're to learn from this.
ps hope you had a Happy Birthday!
Hey Jen! I have been teaching 10 and 11 year olds and I have found that bribery works the best. One time my kids thought it would be funny to shut me out of the classroom...so I just sat on the couches until one of the girls came to get me....then I proceeded to eat candy in front of them the entire lesson- I actually brought it for them if they were good, but I just told them I was the only good one and they didn't deserve it. They thought it was a good joke and at the end of class they asked for a piece of candy...I just said no. After that, they pretty much believed me when I said I would do something. Something that I was going to do but didn't have to was get licorice rope...put it on a board and write each kid's name above it. As you are teaching the lesson and that girl starts throwing a fit, just have whoever isn't speaking (you or Matt) cut off part of her licorice rope and eat it. At the end of the lesson, they get whatever is left of their ropes. Remember, you don't really have to be politically correct when you are teaching primary like when you are teaching preschool. :) Let me know if you try any of those out.
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