Swimming With the Dolphins

There are two groups of students I tend to avoid when scheduling substitute jobs: children under the age of 7 and children over the age of 11. I've discovered one group too undisciplined to learn effectively and the other too indifferent. I've had experience with both and for some reason 7-10 year olds are my niche. (I think I would be good with college students as well but am not qualified to teach that level.) They are old enough to be focused yet young enough not to be apathetic.

However, I don't always have a choice in classes. Today it was either primary students or nothing so I had to take one for the team. I was all prepared to hold back a profanity shouting, arm swinging demon but met with a bunch of wild dolphins instead. Dolphins as in  the animal group their pod calls themself and like the actual animal, they were both playful yet highly spirited. I thought I was in for a battle of wills when my lesson plan contained notes on certain students that needed "refocusing" but found that with a little extra attention and patience they followed to my lead with ease. As a result one of these kids was attached to my side as my new best helper while the other one was first to receive high praise from the lunchroom monitors for sitting quietly. In fact my whole class was given a compliment at lunch for their good behavior, (the equivalent of gold in the education world), which I was told, "Says a lot since that rarely ever happens with this group."

There have been many a hectic and chaotic day that make me want to just lay my head down on my desk while the paper airplanes take me down in defeat but I just might be getting the hang of this whole classroom management thing yet! I'd like to think that both the class and myself  might actually better than we think. I'm even starting to reconsider possibly becoming a teacher myself but for now I'll take our shiny gold star.  I'd like to thank you to my parents for setting a good example, my psychology degree for giving me insight into human behavior, table points for saving my sanity, and my little children of the sea for helping me stay afloat.