Friday, November 02, 2018

Noisy Girl

She used to sit with her friends and never, ever listen. Not only that, but her friends never, ever listened either. This was problematic, so I had to move her seat. This was pretty helpful to her friends.

In our half room, we have these tables of four. On the positive side, groupwork is kind of automatic. On the minus side, with this group, if I had a real classroom, I'd move them into rows so they could focus a little better.

Actually I don't love placing kids in rows. Give me half a chance and I'll place students in half a circle. I actually like it when they communicate. But it's got to be directed somehow. If I want chaos, I can always go to New Jersey. I don't usually do that, though, unless someone pays me.

So I moved the girl again. Now she sits with a boy who doesn't speak her first language. I've got her using English all the time. I am a genius. Well, perhaps not. Now, she talks to me. All the time. It doesn't matter what's going on. She has a question. She has a problem. She needs to do something, and she needs to do it right now.

I ask her to go to the board and she doesn't want to. It's not convenient right now. I tell her lots of things are not convenient, and she knows instantly I'm threatening to call her house. She's a quick learner. Only that's really not what I want her to learn.

I'm her English teacher, and I want her to learn English. She will, of course, with my help or without it. She's very verbal, and she will talk to anyone and everyone. People like her are the best language learners there are. Only her grades are kind of meh. 74 on this, 72 on that. The thing is, if she would focus, a little bit, it would be 95, 100, whatever. No one's smarter than she is. She just doesn't know it.

I could tell her, I guess, but I'm not sure that would help. She might interpret that to mean she merits even more of my attention. The problem is right now she's demanding 100% of it. This is inconvenient for me because I have over 20 other students. She hasn't noticed that, or maybe, doesn't deem it important. After all, attention needs to be paid, by me, right now, and every minute after that, just because.

It's pretty hard to find a compromise here. Okay. You want all of my attention. How about we make a deal? I will give you maybe 5 percent and you will allow me to deal with the other students in the room the rest of the time. No? 6 percent? That's my final offer, and it's really more than I ought to be offering.

I know there is a way to deal here. I know there is a solution. I just don't know what it is yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll go in and nail some tables and chairs to the ceiling. If she refuses to sit in them, I'll try sitting in them myself. That would certainly get everyone else's attention.
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