It's in the air . . . the lethargy, the wiggles, the lack of concentration. In other words, it's spring fever. And even college kids (or maybe, especially college kids??) get it.
So, my UNT class (the juniors and seniors in their teacher prep program) was not immune to this dreaded illness. Throughout class I had to refocus their attention SEVERAL times. And it's not like I can use the tricks I used on my second graders, "Everyone, look up here. I'm the cutest teacher in the world and you always want to be watching the cutest teacher in the world."
So I did the next best thing. I had everyone stand up. Instant quizzicalness on faces. Once everyone was standing up nice and tall, eyes focused on me (the cutest teacher in the world), I broke out into the Hokey-Pokey. I only detected a few eyes rolling. We did two verses before sitting down.
I closed with, "You know, sometimes a teacher just gets tired of trying to get a class to pay attention. Remember to keep those kids moving!"
I guarantee that some stressed-out teacher in the future will be remembering this day in class and using the same trick. After all, if it works for adults, it must work for kids too. Right?
