"Ms. Haley! Ms. Haley!! Look how I remembered to write the small r's!"
"S, remember that writing is quiet time. We don't yell."
With those words halfway out of my mouth, I was already kicking myself. Even as I read them now I hate myself for it. S and I have been working to perfect her name-writing for a whole week. The only thing she has left to learn is to remember to use lowercase r's. Not one of my finer moments.
As I get more used to the everyday flow of teaching, I have developed standard responses for dealing with smaller things. Let's think of it as a coping mechanism that I use to reduce the overwhelming stress of making hundreds of decisions every day. However, these coping mechanisms are not in any way responsive to individual students. They do not encourage or foster learning. I need to remember that teaching is not just about getting through material and actually stop to appreciate the small moments, Lucy Calkins style.
Don't beat yourself up over that comment. Yes she was excited but if she was allowed to continue without some sort of reprimand, (might be too harsh a word) for what she did, then it would happen again and the other students might assume that it's ok to do that. Did you compliment her on her good work and ask her to raise her hand the next time? I think you have to maintain discipline but in a nice way.
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