The Sub Chronicles:
You realize many things when you are subbing. For me, it has been how badly I want my own classroom. I also find myself looking around at classrooms and situations and trying to figure out what kind of classroom setting I want to set.
I know in the District where I am primarily been subbing, they are an LFS - learning focus school. What this means is that bulletin boards have to have information as apposed to pictures and fun things. Being that this is District mandated, there is very little wiggle room on this topic.
Still, it is interesting to see the many various ways that teachers present the same material. For example, some teachers make everything color coded and bright... boards that scream "Even though I am full of dull lesson information, LOOK AT ME'.
Other teachers have given up all together on the concept of bulletin boards and have just put up the bare minimum to scrap by.
Others yet have just thrown material on the board, with no sense of color scheme or pattern. These classrooms drive me bananas.
I have found (and have been told) that I need to do things my way and that I am less stressed out when things are done by the "Jillian Method".
When I enter one of these classrooms, where there are throws of color with no sense of balance or pattern, I just want to re-do it. I spend my days staring at the wall, trying to figure out how I would change it if I could. The kids of course take notice of my staring, and once, I even got into a discussion/debate with a student about what they would do if the could decorate a room.
You may not think anything of it, but kids notice when things don't match. And they notice when walls are dull. And they notice when things are too bright and in your face.
And they notice ever more so when you spend your days staring at the dull or in your face walls.
No comments:
Post a Comment