Day 84: Closet Claustrophiac

Daily Objective: Students will be able to define poetry vocabulary words.

Today was a little off.

At my school, virtually every student is in an English class all the time.  This means that whenever someone wants every student to fill something out or hand something in, it's usually done in English class. Today it was filling out the student council scantron sheets so students could know who they were compatible with in the school in preparation for Valentine's Day.

This isn't a big deal, except that my students agonized over the questions.

"Miss, how tall am I?"
"What does a 'casual' relationship mean?"
"In class, am I an active participant or an intense listener?"

I should've set a time limit; what ought to have been a five-minute activity turned into twenty for some of my students who continued to bubble in answers when they were supposed to be copying vocab words.  I downloaded a neat Jeopardy game on the smart board for my students to study these words, and we only go to play it in two periods; the other four just ran out of time.

The highlight of my day was when one of my boys presented me with a persuasive letter he had written in protest of his location in the new seating chart.  It was too good not to share, so please enjoy his effort.  My personal favorite was his word choice: his current location forces him into "learning deprivement" and "lack of focusness."  I was impressed that he followed through on what he said he would do, so I let him sit where he wanted to today - interestingly, on the floor against the wall.  He seemed cozy and got his work done...

Enjoy!

Dear Mrs. H,

I am here covering the issues that could come from this new seating chart. Throughout this essay, I will address three main concerns of mine that will most likely occur during said time of this seating chart. The first issue that will be confronted, is a potential uncomfortable learning environment. Secondly, potential claustrophobia. Lastly and most importantly, learning deprivement.

Im not a teacher or anything, but I think an uncomfortable learning environment is one of the worst situations that a student could be put in. You went to Harvard, you're a smart woman, I understand what you're doing by putting a seating chart in. You need a good view of the whole classroom. You need easy access to student's desks but I think where I'm assigned to sit isn't an adequate location for my learning needs. I also understand that you may have moved me to a more rural area of the classroom due to my behavior. It's a longshot, but that could also be the problem.  So I propose an alternative choice like isolating me from others in the classroom. I feel like that would be a great problem solver.

Secondly, potential claustrophobia. I hate to admit it, but hi, I'm a closet claustrophiac. Im really sorry I had to expose something like that to you. But that's what a seating chart does. It pulls out the worst out of people. It may be all in my head but I think sitting in my assigned seat would make me start hyperventilating. Maybe and maybe not, but I'm not willing to take any chances.

Lastly, and most important, learning deprivement. I feel like sitting in my assigned seat by the people assigned to sit by would seriously deprive me of a good education that I could be getting from your lessons. Not only would my mood and morale be down, but my whole attention span and focusness would also suffer. I also feel like if those things were to happen and I might be able to pay a little bit of attention to what you're saying I wouldn't get the full jist and purpose of your lesson plan. And it's like it would be a wasted day. You and I both Mrs. H, we like to be efficient. I feel like efficiency is key to success, and I see myself being very successful. And even that much more successful if I could get the full learning experience from your class.

What I'm trying to get at here is that, I have a few concerns that would come from this seating chart. I hope you take my reasoning for tweaking the chart into close consideration. Thank you..

Kind regards,
Your student

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