Tuesday, October 25, 2011

...bellwork...

So I start each class with an assignment that students work on right away when the bell rings.  I call it bellwork.  Genius, I know.  Most of my colleagues follow this same procedure.

Another teacher teaches the same class as I do, so we try to make sure we are doing the same things.  A new quarter just began, and we are beginning with a new type of bellwork assignment.  He came up with the idea, and was working on it over the weekend.  During our prep hour today he came into my classroom and asked me a question in regards to it.  I asked him if we could work on it my classroom, or if I needed to go to his.  He began walking towards his room.  I took that to mean we needed to go to his classroom.

So, I put my activities on hold, and followed him.  He went straight to his computer and began opening up a file.  It was a picture of his cute, little children.  So, we took a moment to chat about their cuteness & he changed his desktop from a somewhat frightening picture of one son, to this uber-cute picture of both.  Then he started messing with things on the desktop, & I asked what he needed me to look at for the bellwork assignment.

His response:  Oh, it's in my car.


Wow.  That was really helpful.  When will I learn that the guys in my hallway should not be trusted when they suggest I come check something out in their classroom?  90% of the time it is not related to the task at hand, but simply a picture or video that they think is funny.

Just to be fair to myself, I don't always fall into this trap.

Don't worry, the assignment was created before our prep hour was over.

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