One of the most necessary skills in the management of young children is the ability to anticipate their behavior. This is particularly true with groups of children. It is even more particularly true with groups containing high energy children. I feel like I spent a large part of today focused on anticipating and preventing problem behaviors.
I started with Gleek. She’s had some trouble settling in to class time at church. The new year, new teacher, and new expectations are not beyond her capability to handle, but I needed to figure out how to get her to want to put forth the effort. I meant to sit down with her before church and talk things through, but I forgot. So I found myself in church, knowing that I was going to have the full complement of my primary class which would need my full attention. I really needed Gleek to manage herself without any intervention from me. I really hoped she could manage herself without causing trouble for any teachers. So sitting in sacrament meeting, I wrote her a note. Thus began written negotiations in which we defined what things she can do to settle herself when she feels antsy and what reward she can expect if she makes it through without troubles. The process of writing the notes was sufficiently engaging, that Gleek was fully committed to the idea of controlling herself during church. I haven’t yet had time to check with people who could observe her, but I know that she did not come to me at all.
It was good that Gleek did not come to me because all of my energy was completely focused on the six kids in my care. In most groups that size there are one or two children who need extra attention to help them stay focused and attentive. This group has one or two kids who don’t need extra attention. I was on high alert constantly scanning to see who might need an encouraging smile, or a gentle touch to the arm, or retrieving from the other side of the room. The job is going to get easier when I know the kids better. Right now I have no idea what that peculiar look on that child’s face means. It could be a precursor of anything from pants wetting, bursting into tears, hitting another child, or fleeing from the room. As I get to know the likely behaviors, I’ll be able to relax more. It will also be nice when my co-teacher and I can get a solid working relationship going. She couldn’t be there today, so I was flying solo.
During the large group song and lesson time, my whole focus was on keeping the kids happy and more or less in their seats. In some ways it was like musical chairs. The kids were constantly moving and switching and I switched too depending on which child needed to sit near the teacher or on the teacher. I also handed out several rounds of fish crackers. 2 pm is a hungry time of day. One of the boys has attentional challenges. Sometimes I was able to direct his attention to the lesson or song, but mostly I just tried to keep him occupied in ways that would not disturb others. At one point I could see that sitting still was starting to be too much for him, so I grabbed the roll of masking tape from my bag and wrapped a piece around one of his fingers. I instantly had his full and quiet attention. He asked for me to put tape on all of his fingers. Then he sat quietly for several minutes, just wiggling his fingers to absorb the strange feeling of having them taped up. Then a couple minutes more were spent carefully removing each piece of tape and handing them to me. Later tape was place on his back as dragon wings. And then the dragon wings were transferred to me.
The one thing I am not sure of, is whether my child management decisions were viewed as a disruption by the other adults/teachers. My focus on making sure the kids enjoy primary has the potential to grate on the nerves of someone who feels that children should sit still and learn. Trying to make these kids sit perfectly still and quiet sounds like an exercise in frustration and misery for everyone involved. Young children are wired to absorb information on the run. I’ll make sure there is a lesson of sorts, but my first priority is to make sure that they like to come to class. As the year progresses we can work on more expanded lessons.
It was exciting and fun to teach the class, but I came home feeling like I’d been run over by a truck. I’m exhausted.