loose change

Have you ever had a couple hundred quarters go spilling onto your classroom floor?

While I was still teaching high school students, we had a situation that occured during summer school. It came to my mind earlier today. I thought I would write about it on the blog. The local vending machine rep was in our school to collect the money from the machine and restock it with items. When he returned some items to his truck, he left the money bag sitting on top of the machine.

Well, of course, a student stole the money bag, which contained a significant sum. The police were called to school and a search was started room to room. When they asked for a certain student in my classroom who sat at the back, he rose to leave the room. As he made his way from his chair quarters and other change went everywhere onto the floor. It seems he became aware the police had arrived at school. He was trying to balance the money back on his chair, but when he stood, it all fell to the floor. Busted!!!

I don't really have any words of wisdom to go along with this. It was just a decent story I thought of today. One thing about education is we always have interesting things happening!

You better say you're sorry...or else!!!

angry kid
Originally uploaded by tomneil04

Have you ever been tempted to make kids in your school say they're sorry? You know what I mean. Dustin punched Chris because he wouldn't give him his pencil back that he loaned to him two weeks ago when the substitute teacher was there and now he's really mad because he doesn't have a pencil and he needs one...whew! Now you are the one who is brokering peace! Is it a good idea to make them say they are sorry to one another?

Actually, we'll get to that in a minute. First of all, we have to get these boys to admit to what they've done. The detective...err, the teacher needs the facts...just the facts. Once you have the facts established, each student must take responsibility for what he or she has done. Here's how the conversation might go:

"Chris, was Dustin being a good friend when he loaned you his pencil?"

"Yes," says the student.

"Dustin, I understand you really needed your pencil back. Two weeks is a long time to go without your pencil. That's a real problem. Do we solve our problems by hitting?"

"No," says the student.

"It seems that Chris didn't choose to return a pencil to it's owner, and Dustin didn't choose to solve a problem by talking instead of hitting, right?"

"Yes," the boys agree.

Now here is the magic question that will usually result in the apology that is needed in this situation:

"Boys, what do you think we should do next?"

If they don't suggest apologizing to one another, give them another prompt:

"What do we do when we make mistakes?"

Maybe you won't have to MAKE them apologize after all.