I just didn't understand why my 8th grade Honors English teacher liked Don S., and Collin K. They were loud, obnoxious, and truthfully I wondered by their frequent outbreaks if they really were as smart as the rest of us. What I know was true was despite this all teachers liked them, and they were the two most popular kids at school.
The truth is, teachers do love class clowns. I admit it--shamefully--but I admit it. Why do we like those kids sometimes more than the "good" kids who quietly behave? They make life interesting. Kids rally around them. If your class clown is behind you--meaning--on board with what you are teaching--largely the rest of the class will be too. (Of course, there are always exceptions).
I am teaching Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream right now in my 10th grade classes and the classes where I have a couple class clowns that are all about the love triangles and can't wait to read the next act of the play--the rest of the class has more fun. We are all laughing about Bottom getting turned into an A-S-S and the love potion accidentally getting into Demetrius's eyes rather than Lysander's.
While I was reading Huckleberry Finn with my 11th graders, if my class clowns enjoyed acting out scenes and reading parts outloud the rest of the class laughed and enjoyed it as well.
Class clowns can add a jovial air to the classroom, and give you as a teacher, something to laugh about, blog about, and talk to other teachers and friends about. Boy, could I tell you some stories!
If your class clown is instead a class bully or class jerk, or bad-attitude-student who-messes-around---that type of attitude spreads quickly in a classroom as well.
But I will have admit it has been a teaching epiphany--sometimes you like your loudest, craziest kids the best, and sometimes the ones you overlook more often than you should are the good kids that don't give you a reason to HAVE TO pay attention to them. Interesting, huh?
So, should we all be raising class clowns rather than well behaved, quite students? Probably somewhere inbetween--I will take your socially-adjusted, not-scared-of-authority students with pleasant attitudes, please. :D
Spring Break Quarantine Style
4 years ago
4 comments:
it's so true!! the quiet ones that worked diligently were so hard to remember to pay attention to! and sometimes even to remember their names! yikes. the clowns make class SO fun. Teachers just become groupies all over again. :) I had this student named Kip (a class officer akin to Chris Farley) who blew a medical glove up with his nose. It was hysterical. love those kids!
p.s. lets play next week! i turn my thesis in to my committee on Wednesday!
Interesting...but I think you have a point! I was never the teacher's favorite and now I know why! Gosh! I need to re-think how to raise my own kids! ;)
This is beginning to explain a lot about my school experience. LOL...I knew I should of piped up more often. :)
You are such a great teacher! And now I feel better about my two huge goofballs. Maybe it will all work out someday :)
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