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Teaching Rulz

Today was the first day of Sunday School. Only one kid showed up.  I am a professional teacher so this should have been a piece of cake, but perhaps my skills are a little rusty.   Marcus, my team teacher and I, decided to go ahead with the getting acquainted activity and our classroom rules.  For our activity we all took a piece of paper (yes, even Marcus and I) and drew a picture of ourselves.  We put our names beside our picture.  All around the picture we were supposed to put things we liked or whatever was important to us.   This way we could see from our pictures what things we have in common (we all like ice cream) and how we’re different (I don’t watch TV, Marcus has a pet, and Darren has 3 brothers).

Darren had some trouble thinking of anything besides his brothers to put on his paper.  I didn’t want to tell him what to write, so I was prompting him think of the word “friends”.  I said, “So what do you call the people you play with?”  Darren frowned while he thought and then pointed at the picture already on his paper.  “Brothers,” he said.  I looked over at Marcus and we just sort of nodded our heads at each other.  It did make sense.

~*~

At another point during the hour and fifteen minutes, I said to Darren, “So, I have three number one rules in my classroom.  You think you can handle three number one rules?”

Darren shrugged his shoulders and said, “Yeah sure.”  Nine year-olds are cool like that.  Marcus, though, was a little perplexed.  “Three number one rules?” He questioned.

Darren answered before I could.  He matter-of-factly said, “They all must be pretty important.”

I nodded my head at Marcus.  “They are,” I said.  “My first number one rule is, don’t step on the little kids.  They stick to your shoes and you’ll drag them in on the carpet.”  We all looked at the tile floor.  “Okay,” I said, “We don’t have any carpet, but they’d still make the floor really sticky.”

Darren held up his right hand and said, “I promise not to step on any little kids” (too funny since he’s maybe 45 inches tall).

I said, “Good.  That’s important.  My next number one rule is, keep all of your blood on the inside.  It was put there for a reason and you need to keep it there.”

Darren said, “I can do that.”

I pointed at a big scab on his elbow.  “I don’t know,” I said.  “It looks to me like you’ve had some trouble with that.”

“Not me!”  Darren answered.  “That was my scooter!”

Marcus and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

I straightened my face as best I could and said very seriously, “Now I know Uncle Marcus thinks it’s kind of weird to have three number one rules, but I can tell he approves of the first two and I know he is going to like this last one.  My third number one rule is, don’t throw up on the teacher.”

Marcus said, “Oh I do like that rule!  I think it’s my favorite!”

I said, “If you ever feel sick and you have to throw up, run for the waste basket.  You can try to run to the bathroom if you want to.  Once you get outside (all our hallways are outdoors) you can always throw up in the grass.  Just don’t throw up on the teachers.”

Marcus interrupted, “Of course, you could probably throw up on one of your friends if you really wanted to.  Just try to avoid the grownups.”

Darren frowned at Marcus and said, “I don’t think my friends would like that,” at the same time I said, “Uncle Marcus, you’re not helping!”

As we said good bye, I couldn’t help but wonder what Darren is going to tell his family he learned today.

33 Comments

  1. I like your rules!

    Doing things with the kids is often more fun than I think it will be; with autisitc kids I often have to do it that way just to get them to sit down at all but hey, before I had these two I didn’t know what I was missing. After 40 years wow I *still* like crayons LOL.

  2. Susan — I taught Special needs pre-K for a year and I loved every one of my kids. They were joy, riot, puzzle and heartache all mixed into one.

  6. It almost makes me want to start teaching Sunday School again! This fall I’m doing my turn in the nursery though — they’re pretty good with rule #2, but 1 and 3 are really hard for them. I don’t wear nice clothes on nursery days. 😉 Thanks for making me smile. Again.
    .-= Southlakesmom´s last blog ..Take This Tune =-.

  7. That third rule is awesome. I think there also needs to be a rule about not stepping on the grownups too. Kids shoes hurt when they are standing on your toes!

    1. Melli — those are MY rules. They kids get to set their own rules. It is something we do on the first day of school and we decide as a classroom what rules WE want. (Don’t worry, they always pick the right ones.)

  13. When we worked with Awanas, the rule “Keep your hands to yourself” covered a multitude of sins — tickling, poking, etc. They didn’t even question it in a game in which we held hands — they could pick up on the difference.

    I hope Darren comes back! Sounds like a fun class so far.

    1. Barbara — kids are usually much smarter than they’re ever given credit for! And Darren will be back. He & his brothers and their Aunt are in church every Sunday. I just hope soccer ends soon and the other kids come back!

    1. Gigi — I’ve already had my run in with the “powers that be”. They know I make noise if I think the kids aren’t being given due credit.

    1. Thom — SOCCER! Two kids are on the same team and they had a morning game. And two kids have moved cross island and won’t be back (wah!) and I don’t know why the other three didn’t show.

  17. You sound like a really cool teacher. I’ll bet you really connect with the kids. (or KID, I should say) I love to have a sense of humor with the kids. They like that. I assist with our Youth Group and I am the co-leader of our Girl Scout Troop. Humor helps to break the ice and make the kids feel comfortable. Your Darren sounds like a good kid. Maybe next week more kids will show.

  18. Church Lady, my students usually think I’m cool because I’m funny. My principals usually think I’m cool because my students earn test scores they like.

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