Fergy's Laughter Lab Notes
My students and I laugh all the time in my classroom, so I didn't need to wait until the new year to create an experience, I have a treasure trove saved away in my brain.
And scene.
What's really interesting about this exchange was that J.W. - my own Teddy Stoddard - stepped up and took control of the situation, which I found hilarious. He started giving the boy directions in a way that clicked for that student. J.W. was using the same words as me, but something about the way he said it made that troublesome and clueless boy understand what was going on. Peer pressure or something, probably.
Throughout all of this, my class is laughing with me at the ridiculousness of the situation. The laughter brought out a new side to my classroom, encouraged a troubled student to take a small leadership role, and gave me a newfound respect for my third hour.
For as much trouble as my fourth hour is, I look forward to seeing what else they can destroy in the new year. :)
I have lofty goals sometimes. The most ridiculous lofty goal I had was trying to get my 9th graders to work together to give short informative speeches about their independent novels. On a typical day, tucked quietly in the middle of a slow month, this would not make any headlines; however, I was ridiculous and I planned this all to occur on the last day before Winter Break. Dumb.
I even thought beforehand, "Wow. This is not a good idea. Is it possible to post-pone this?" so I looked in my calendar and realized NOPE. So I went with it.
My third hour class did just fine. But of course they would. It's a group of 30 students who are quiet and just like to get their work done. My fourth hour was going to be a nightmare.
My fourth hour class of Language Arts 9 has fewer than 20 students. A dream come true, some might say. Again, NOPE. I decided to look on the bright side, and expect that my students would be able to complete this task with little issue, just like third hour. I mean, I created a 4 page handout containing every possible direction - including a Q & A section - to help my students be as successful as possible. I made large signs with step-by-step directions and taped them to my wall so students could have reminders about what to do. So, I stood by the doorway with my podium - an every day occurrence - and greeted each student as they walked in.
The problems began immediately.
To make a 47 minute horror story, short, here are some of the things that occurred during the first 1 minute of the dumpster fire that was Genre Panel Day in Ferguson's classroom:
- I asked students to take a piece of paper from the podium. Most ignored me. The ones that picked up the paper looked confused as if we hadn't spent 2 days prepping for this very event.
- Someone asked me what we're doing today. They didn't bother to
- Read the Agenda
- Read their Calendar
- Read the Objectives Wall
- Ask a Friend
- Look at the Absent Planner
- Look at the PowerPoint Title Slide
- Look at the giant posters taped in the room
- ...Pay attention for the past two days
No Bueno.
The class went on painfully. Students didn't prepare, have their work done, or have any clue what was going on. I quickly turned into the Joker. The laughter began as exasperated sighs from my corner of the room. My new student, a quiet boy from Ghana looked back at me with a huge smile - he was thoroughly enjoying the trainwreck that was unfolding before him. He had been in my room for 3 days. Welcome. This is your Language Arts class. A student tasked to teach the class about a biography asked me, on Genre Panel Day, what a biography was. At that point, looking at my student, looking out over my classroom at the disinterest on my students' faces, I broke down laughing. I decided to stop crafting Carefully Worded Positive Statements to help my clueless students save face. I called it like I saw it, and it was one of the few times I feel like my voice and perspective has resonated with that specific group of students.
The mood in the room never became heightened or scary. Students knew they messed up and they knew I had a right to be upset. I noticed something really interesting about my classroom that day: my students were actually talking to each other and helping each other out. This never happens in fourth hour. Never. Here's the exchange that was a turning point for my classroom that day:
Ferguson: (annoyed) Okay, next group.
Students sit in silence, unflinching in their determination to refuse reality. Ferguson chooses a random group.
The Random Group slowly stands up and wanders around, unsure of what to do even after watching 4 previous groups do the exact same thing they were supposed to do. One student, Boy, decides to be a leader and inexplicably carry his laptop over to my desktop computer.
Ferguson: (curious) Boy, why do you have your laptop?
Boy: (earnest) Because I need to log in for my presentation.
Ferguson: I don't understand. Did you see any other groups use their laptops for this? How did you think you were going to project your presentation from your laptop to my projector?
Boy: (ignoring me) I've got to open it on my laptop.
Ferguson: No. Close it. Use Google Drive on my desktop.
Students in the class have now interrupted me to explain to Boy that he needs to use my computer and not his laptop. He closes the laptop.
Boy tries to log in to Google Drive. Ferguson sees that he needs to first log the previous student out of Google before Boy can successfully log in.
Ferguson: You need to log the other person out.
Boy: I did.
Ferguson: No you didn't.
Boy: I did.
Ferguson: I can see the error message. Close out of that tab, log the other person out, and then log in.
Boy: (surprised) Oh, I need to log in?
Class: (in unison) YES.
Boy: Okay.
Boy proceeds to close out of EVERY tab. Then he closes every WINDOW open on my computer and can't figure out how to open Chrome.
Ferguson: (flabbergasted) Just to be clear, everyone, I'm not trying to come for Boy. I'm not trying to make him look or sound dumb. Just to be clear. But, Boy, why are you purposefully not listening to me or not following any of my very simple directions? Why?
Boy: (oblivious) I gotta log in.
And scene.
What's really interesting about this exchange was that J.W. - my own Teddy Stoddard - stepped up and took control of the situation, which I found hilarious. He started giving the boy directions in a way that clicked for that student. J.W. was using the same words as me, but something about the way he said it made that troublesome and clueless boy understand what was going on. Peer pressure or something, probably.
Throughout all of this, my class is laughing with me at the ridiculousness of the situation. The laughter brought out a new side to my classroom, encouraged a troubled student to take a small leadership role, and gave me a newfound respect for my third hour.
For as much trouble as my fourth hour is, I look forward to seeing what else they can destroy in the new year. :)
I love this. I love more that you aren't using names, so every time I read the word "BOY" I literally hear it with an angry southern voice. It's crazy sometimes when we ask very simple things of students and it seems like we are doing Honors Calculus when the task is like "please read this instruction detailed instruction and write a simple paragraph about all the things I asked in my assignment description."
ReplyDeleteI like that you addressed the whole class too with it because it shows you aren't afraid to have a real conversation about a real issue that may continue or happen with other students. You taught some of the something so simple, just so you don't have to keep teaching kids how to log into their Google account on your computer. "How did you think you'd project your presentation on the screen from your laptop?" -_-;
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! Your writing speaks to my soul!!!! "I decided to stop crafting Carefully Worded Positive Statements to help my clueless students save face." XD Sometimes you gotta speak their language! I go home sometimes still in my groove, and I let some middle school lingo slip out at dinner and my hubby just looks at me and shakes his head. I am going to come and visit your classroom some day. This is the kind of laughter every classroom needs :)
ReplyDeleteYour post made me feel a lot better about a similar horror story during my own LA 9 Genre Panel Day. First I'd like to ask, how can we teach students how to become better problem solvers? There's a lack of initiative in many students, while others, like your Teddy Stoddard, feel annoyed and take it upon themselves to continue the discussion or instruction. Even with clear instructions students won't follow or take too long to follow directions.
ReplyDeleteBTW I can't understand how often clueless tech moments like this offer a moment of laughter in our classrooms. Aren't these students supposed to school us in technology at this point? Most grew up with it or have caught up fast. I can imagine sometimes that these clueless behaviors are a rouse, but sometimes they are legitimate.
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