Ed 115

Last year during J term I was got the opportunity to observe a 1st grade classroom here in Decorah at St. Ben's Catholic School. Throughout my visit in the classroom I got to witness first hand many of the teaching strategies of an experienced teacher. She managed the class very well and there were few outbursts from kids, except for one student, Owen. Owen was a kid who had so much energy he did not know what to do with it. He would bounce out of his chair to answer a question and then say something like "fart fart fart" and make the noise with his armpit. Time after time he did this until finally Mrs. Blair decided to do something about it. She had me take over at the front the classroom and talked to Owen outside. His behavior changed the rest of the day and I would find out later why that was so. After the kids left for home I talked to Mrs. Blair about what she had talked to him about and she said it was the same stuff she had told him the rest of the year but what made it different was how she said it and where. Instead of talking to him in front of the class in depth like she had done, she spoke with him in private to avoid the embarrassment. She did this because when most kids get scolded in front of the class they get exactly what they want... attention. I had been worried about what I was going to do with the problem children that seem to never understand their behaviors are not right until Mrs. Blair enlightened me with this technique.