What My Sixth Graders Have Taught Me: Part 1

Yes, it's official. My career as a sixth grade teacher is coming to an end. Only 19.5 days (but who's counting?) I think it wise to record some of the wisdom I've gleaned from my students over the last two years as their teacher.

1. My students are blunt. They can't really help this. They just call it like they see it. But this has led to a lot of interesting conversations in class. Students tell me when they don't like my shirt or my hair is messed up. They love me even more when I tell them I'm trying to set a new trend. The best stuff is what they tell me about their parents, "I'm pretty sure you mom and dad don't want me to know they talk like that, Brian."

2. My students value their time based on the "fun scale". This is especially true in school. As a teacher, if you can make grammar and spelling entertaining, you are worshipped. They only way I've found to do this effectively is to not do grammar and spelling :)

3. My students go to the bathroom a lot. This has only recently started to annoy me. I don't know if they have a Playstation in there or what, but you'd think so. I've never been around people with such limited ability to hold it. I don't know how a family road trip would ever be possible with some of these kids. I can't even imagine them making it to Castle Rock.

4. Laughter is good medicine. Oh how surprised I've been by the sense of humor some of my kids possess. I have had a good laugh with them almost everyday of my teaching career. I even have some "extended laughers" who can't gain back control for a while and, if pushed, would surely pee their pants. They are always the girls.

5. The top students are limited in television, movies or video games by their parents. There are exceptions to every rule, but in both of my classes the trends have been: those who can watch as much as they want, can't read at grade level. More studies should be done on this.