Teaching tips

Question: How do you get permanent marker off of your white board?
Answer: Write over it with dry erase marker and then wipe it off.

Question: How do you stop kids from tattling?
Answer: Stop everything and suggest to the class that we take a vote on who is the naughtiest child in the class. (They will immediately look at you with shock and horror and then you can move on quickly to your next point.)

Question: What do you say when a child shows you a 2 week old boo boo and tells you it hurts.
Answer A (to be used when the child is a whiner): Ask the child, "Are you going to live?" and move on.
Answer B (to be used when the child is a hypochondriac): Tell the child, "I don't know what it is, and I don't know what to tell you. I am sorry that it hurts. Don't touch it and it will stop hurting." (in their mind it usually stops)

Yesterday I was in second grade and we were in a time of sharing. The students were raising their hands and I was calling on them accordingly. One student had both of her hands in the air one a bit higher than the other. Her posture was slouched and she looked a bit like a stringed pupped whose body strings were looser than her arm strings. I asked her, "Is your hand raised?" "No," she replied, "I just feel like sitting this way."

Sometimes they just have to sit like a tree.