A Scenario
Apaprently, I’m in quiz mode lately.
Scenario
You have been asked to work with a struggling new teacher who recounts the following situation that occurred in her class:
She was having a difficult time managing her second graders when a bee flew in. The already disruptive children became even more incensed. Determined to regain control, the new teacher saw her opportunity when the bee landed on her desk. She seized the moment and “she swatted it, popped it in her mouth and gulped it down.”
Would you:
Calmly explain that this is fairly dangerous behavior to model for second graders?
Discuss the need to teach children about empathy for all living creatures?
Have a quiet conversation about hygene and safety?
Say nothing and immediately march into your supervisor’s office to recommend a psych. evaluation?
Ok, take a moment to Think Pair Share and then come back to us.
Some time goes by.
Ready? Ok, as much as I would like to hear your answer, I really can’t but you would probably be wrong anyway because the correct answer is:
Make her The Chancellor of the Washington DC Public School System!
Yes, Michelle Rhee, former Teach For America Teacher and Chancellor of the DC School System happily recaps the bee story in a Newsweek article. Apparently, killing and digesting the insect was exactly what she needed to get her students’ respect.
Yes, we are living in the twilight zone.
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Comments
No, he definitely isn’t. He doesn’t actually kill the bologna in front of children though.
I’m assuming she was trying to assert some kind of strength and an “I’m really tough” posture to that really scary group of second graders.
She showed them.
I have pretty good classroom management skills and I have never had to swallow anything. Not a bee. Not my pride. Nothing.
[...] Rhee, DC Chancellor and former Teach for America member was very proud to recall a story in which she swatted a bee and ate it in front of her second grade [...]
[...] Kopp: Wow. When it comes to discipline, there’s no greater expert than Chancellor Rhee. When she was teaching some really scary inner city second graders, she got them in line by murdering an insect and swallowing it in front of them. Now that’s assertive discipline! [...]
They say you are what you eat. Yet Frank McCourt consumes a bologna sandwich in the beginning of Teacher Man and doesn’t seem full of bologna at all.
I’m not sure I’d want a teacher eating bees in front of my kid.
NYC Educators last blog post..The Heck with Gym