Constructive Motivation at High Volume

I'll call him "Justin".  Justin was, as many of us call students like him, a pita - a pain in the ass.  He blurted out inappropriately, he intentionally bugged his peers, he was never where he should be... and he always had an excuse.  His OCD was an issue only when it was convenient for him to not do something.  (If he accidentally dropped his iPod in a garbage pail, he'd dumpster-dive in a heartbeat.  However, if asked to move somewhere else in the room because of his disruptive behaviour, he'd have a conniption because someone else's germs might be there, or there might be gum stuck under the desk...) 

This day, he and two other grade 7 students had not had their math homework completed, again!  My instructions to them:  "Bring a piece of paper and a pencil and meet me in the hall."  I started the class off and went into the hall.  "You need to write a letter.  Dear Mom, Dad, Gramma, whoever is at home.   This is the second day in a row that I have not had my math homework done.  Tell them why.  Tell them how you plan to correct this.  Sign it.  I'll be back in a few minutes."

I returned ten minutes later.  Two of the boys held up their finished letters, but not Justin;  his paper was still blank.

"Where's your letter?" I asked him.

"I couldn't do it."

"The other two were able to.  Why couldn't you?"

    "I don't have a pencil."

Pause.  "So you've sat here for ten minutes, doing nothing because you didn't bring a pencil, that I instructed you to bring?"  Silence.   After a dramatic pause, I leaned in closer to him and in a slow stage whisper I growled, "Get one."  His response caught me by surprise:

"Where?"

I stood up, threw my arms up in the air, and shouted, "It's a school!"  Getting progressively louder and more animated.  "There must be five thousand pencils in this building!!  Go get one!!!"  He walked past me, into the now silent room, got a pencil and returned.  I read the other students' letters, instructed them to have them signed for the next day, come back into the room, and left Justin in the hall to finish his letter.

The next day, I was summoned to the office. 

     "Rick," the vice-principal said, "We had a complaint about something that happened yesterday.  There were parents in the school and they overheard you yelling at a student in the hall.  They came to the principal to lodge a complaint."

I replayed the scene for him - just slightly less emphatically than the day before.

     "The parents said you yelled at him."

"I prefer the term 'constructive motivation at high volume'," I countered.  "Well, yes, I did raise my voice - and it was probably wrong to do so - but you know who it was - it was Justin!"

    "Yes, but there were parents in the hall who overheard you yelling at a student."

"Motivating," I corrected.  "OK, I know I should have been more cognizant of that," I continued, "but it was Justin.  You know what he can be like."

     "Yes, Rick, I know Justin very well."

"Then you can appreciate my frustration when he said that."

     "Yes, he can be very frustrating.  However, the principal was concerned because the moms came to see her."

"Yeah, I can appreciate that.  So, did the principal ask you to talk to me about this?"

     "Yes, she did."

"Ok.  Consider me talked to.  And next time I'll send Justin to her."

     "Don't bother, Rick, I know you can handle him.  Just don't yell in the hallways," he quipped.

"I won't," I replied as I turned to go out the door.  "I'll use constructive motivation at medium volume instead."

January 20, 2009

Over the years I have worked with skilled teachers, dedicated teachers, and caring teachers.  Cherie Steele-Sexton is the embodiment of all of these qualities and I thought of her yesterday.

I first met Cherie over 12 years ago when she transferred to AV Graham. (It could even have been longer - the years sort of blend together after a while.)  Her caring about and nurturing of her students was quickly evident; her preparation and dedication consistently obvious to all.  Many children over the years have benefited from having her as a teacher.  So why did I think of Cherie yesterday?  Because exactly four years ago, she touched me, too.

I had arrived at Cherie's grade 4 classroom to give her prep coverage.  The door was shut, the lights were off and there they all were, watching television - not a movie, not a Bill Nye Science Guy episode, but a special news broadcast.  I quietly entered the room, found Cherie and sat beside her.  Her glistening eyes never wavered from the TV.  It was then that I looked at the screen.  It was the Inauguration Ceremony for newly elected Barack Obama.   With tears in her eyes, Cherie turned to me and whispered, "Isn't it wonderful?"

You know how sometimes you understand something but it doesn't take on true meaning until later?  I knew that Obama had been elected.  I knew the inauguration was sometime in January.  I also knew Americans make a big deal regarding their presidents..

 However, that January 20, 2009, I sat there for the rest of the period in a quiet room of grade 4 children, watching;  experiencing vicariously the wonderfulness of it all through my friend, Cherie, whose skin colour I had always been able to see, but for the first time, was truly able to experience.

Revisiting

Tree ornament

A student found this mug after I told this joke to the class.  (We were singing "Land of the Silver Birch".  It fit.)  A guy goes to a psychiatrist, "I'm a teepee.  I'm a wigwam.  I'm a teepee. I'm a wigwam....."  Psychologist, "Calm down, sir.  You're two tents"

Tree ornament

Many years ago, Connie and I decided we would like to have our friends over for a Christmas get together.   Try as we could, with Christmas looming, and us both doing musicals at our schools, and the general busyness of the season, we could find no available dates. "We're so busy in December," Connie lamented.   "Maybe we should have our Christmas party in January."  And that was the start of our annual 'bring-the-gift-you-wish-you-didn't-get, post-Christmas Christmas Party and gift exchange."  Or, as Connie has referred to it, "Christmas Farrer style - late."  It is this coming weekend, and our Christmas decorations are still up in the house and yes, my outside Christmas lights too, but they haven't been lit since New Year's Eve.  At least I no longer need to try to keep a real tree alive for this long.  We went artificial years ago.

This Saturday, however, they will be ablaze in all their LED brilliance and accompanied by our boom-box blaring out one of my favourite Christmas CDs.  Hmmm... will it be my new Lady Antebellum, or Frank Sinatra, or Chicago, or Big Bass Christmas?  Hard decision.

(the flip side)

(the front side)

As I do every year, I have found myself reminiscing over the ornaments and gifts that students have given me over the years.  I am very grateful that so many were signed because, sadly, I did not write the students' names on them when I received them.  Poor planning on my part  :-(

Hand painted rock.

Ornament

Salt and pepper shakers

California Raisins (We had watched 'Claymation Christmas')

Always

Hippie candle (a gift after a long-haired hippie photo of me in my high school yearbook was brought in by a student) 

And it's a bass!

When classroom drummers would suck, I had to smack my music stand with a drum stick to keep a steady beat.  A student, from a class with exceptionally non-rhythmic drummers, made this for me.  It's 1" diameter and 18" long.

Cross stitch (needle point?) from a student and her mom.

Garfield -  a gift from a musical cast.  The guitar was a gift crafted later by a student

A full-size working bugle.  A present from band trip members.

Gift from the cast of the musical "Charlotte's Web"

I haven't.

I love you, too!