It’s the second snow day in a row, with an MLK-inspired three-day weekend starting tonight. Such draconian vacationing is bound to invoke sentimentality in even the most stoic, and so I reflect today on super classroom moments of the past weeks.
But before I continue, I should acknowledge that I mostly share stories in which I am the hero. This is primarily because I view myself as heroic.
My second period this year has been quite enthusiastic about most things (see the Snow Marks post below). They occasionally act as a single herd, seemingly without intentional unity. The other week after their work for the day was finished, they out of nowhere wanted to do the wave. Now, I’ve always wanted to be the type of person that other people cheer for, and so I grabbed my chance. Back and forth across my room, all along the six rows of desks, I ran–and the wave kept up with me. So did the cheering. I was elated, really, and so I acted as if I were going to dive onto the crowd for some surfing. The students cheered at that, too.
The day following I was still elated over my stardom, and so I decided to stop by the cafeteria just to enjoy the calls of “Mr. Jacobs!” “Hey, Mr. Jacobs!” that I was sure would greet me. Of course, reality then struck–the chicken nuggets must have been really tasty that day.
Another way I try to cultivate enthusiasm in the classroom is human-level interaction. That is, if material prizes aren’t momentarily convenient or practical, and if students no longer bite at “a million dollars for the next right answer,” I offer as an immediate reward “a pat on the head by a real, live human being.” This is an especially good idea because of occasional lice outbreaks (right after Christmas break, my team again had to have head checks). Anyway, back in December, a fourth-period student who often seems older than others asked what I was going to give him for his birthday, which was just this week. I replied, “A pat on the head by a real, live human being.”
“All right,” he said, “I’ll remember that.” But on Wednesday, as fourth period was muddling in, he didn’t ask. Instead, I heard another student ask him, “Did you get your pat yet?” I promptly gave the birthday boy his due.
