Volunteer Experiences!!!

I am glad to be able to share my volunteer experiences with the world. My most recent experience was in a kindergarten classroom. I was able to spend a few days in this classroom. It is so interesting to watch the kids work and move around when they are with an experienced teacher who expects them to do their best.

As I watched the kids work, I saw that this particular classroom had a number of students who needed special attention and multiple reminders of how to behave in the classroom. I saw that most of those students were ones that did not usually receive support at home and were doing poorly academically. A few others were quite smart, yet unable to control themselves. As I watched one particular student, a boy, I noticed that he physically could not sit in his seat for more than 3-5 minutes without falling out of his chair. He had trouble controlling himself when it came to talking as well.

This made me think. If I were in this situation, how would I help this student to control himself without taking away from the rest of the class. I can honestly say that I was at a loss for ideas. This student needed so much attention and reminding, that every time he needed to be spoken to, it was taking away from the class. Thinking about this made me wonder, is there a way a teacher can set up a place for a student to go and work through steps to get them-self under control without bothering the rest of the class and without taking away learning time?

Hopefully more time in the classroom will give me more ideas on ways to handle students like these. In the meantime, I never realized how hard it is to find fifteen different and exciting ways to count to 20! :)