Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Oh Rodney, Where Art Thou?
Due to the district mandated benchmark tests last Friday, I had to postpone my lesson on mass, weight, and the solar system until today. Despite some concerns about classroom management, I really liked the activity, which allowed students to calculate their weight on different planets as well as how far they could jump under different gravitational conditions. (What kid wouldn't want to know how far he could jump on the moon?)
So today, I set things up with a quick intro. lecture and then they were off and running...or perhaps better stated, off and jumping. First and second period, the students were not really engaged...but by third period (right after lunch), they were so full of energy that I asked them to work in the hallway. And of course, as one might expect, they were noisy. Perhaps too noisy. Thus when the special education teacher from across the hall asked me to quiet them down, I was more than willing to comply.
"Folks, we need to quiet down..." I said loudly. "the special ed. office is holding meetings and we need to be quiet for them!"
And they quieted down a little, and all seemed at least somewhat right with the world. Until after class. When, as I was picking up my trash, the special ed. teacher from earlier came across the hall and told me that she was offended by my comments.
OFFENDED? BY WHAT?!? "You sounded condescending and like you were trying to single out the special ed. office as being at fault when we're really just sharing the hallway..."
I was shocked...I'm still shocked. Seriously, I may be paraphrasing the quoted comments from my special ed. colleague, but mine are almost verbatim. I apologized quickly, but that wasn't quite good enough. She just walked away offended and unwilling to accept that I honestly meant no disrespect in any way. I have enough trouble with the students in my school...why go out of my way to offend fellow faculty?
The real shame of it is though, that none of this would happen if I weren't trying to go out of my way to engage students who otherwise would have trouble grasping a tricky concept like mass v. weight. If I didn't need to accommodate a slew of different learning modalities and utilize techniques commonly suggested for (dare I say it) special education/learning support classes, then I never would have been in the hallway in the first place! Some of the students out there probably even had individual education plans...how dare I come under fire for trying to acquiesce to a request while simultaneously attempting to interact with my students and get them excited about science.
Ah, Mr. Dangerfield you had it right. No respect...no respect at all.
Due to the district mandated benchmark tests last Friday, I had to postpone my lesson on mass, weight, and the solar system until today. Despite some concerns about classroom management, I really liked the activity, which allowed students to calculate their weight on different planets as well as how far they could jump under different gravitational conditions. (What kid wouldn't want to know how far he could jump on the moon?)
So today, I set things up with a quick intro. lecture and then they were off and running...or perhaps better stated, off and jumping. First and second period, the students were not really engaged...but by third period (right after lunch), they were so full of energy that I asked them to work in the hallway. And of course, as one might expect, they were noisy. Perhaps too noisy. Thus when the special education teacher from across the hall asked me to quiet them down, I was more than willing to comply.
"Folks, we need to quiet down..." I said loudly. "the special ed. office is holding meetings and we need to be quiet for them!"
And they quieted down a little, and all seemed at least somewhat right with the world. Until after class. When, as I was picking up my trash, the special ed. teacher from earlier came across the hall and told me that she was offended by my comments.
OFFENDED? BY WHAT?!? "You sounded condescending and like you were trying to single out the special ed. office as being at fault when we're really just sharing the hallway..."
I was shocked...I'm still shocked. Seriously, I may be paraphrasing the quoted comments from my special ed. colleague, but mine are almost verbatim. I apologized quickly, but that wasn't quite good enough. She just walked away offended and unwilling to accept that I honestly meant no disrespect in any way. I have enough trouble with the students in my school...why go out of my way to offend fellow faculty?
The real shame of it is though, that none of this would happen if I weren't trying to go out of my way to engage students who otherwise would have trouble grasping a tricky concept like mass v. weight. If I didn't need to accommodate a slew of different learning modalities and utilize techniques commonly suggested for (dare I say it) special education/learning support classes, then I never would have been in the hallway in the first place! Some of the students out there probably even had individual education plans...how dare I come under fire for trying to acquiesce to a request while simultaneously attempting to interact with my students and get them excited about science.
Ah, Mr. Dangerfield you had it right. No respect...no respect at all.
