The Silent Treatment

Imagine a day where you are not allowed to talk or make noise all day. You must go through all your duties without talking, not even a whisper. There are peers all around you, also going throughout the day in silence. The others make little signs to you. Signs like waving "Hi!" with a silent gesture as you pass by. You sit side-by-side with your peers sharing the space at your work area, without talking, without making contact verbally, and without any verbal social interaction. On occasion, you may raise your hand to ask a question to the overseer. To go to the bathroom, you must make a hand sign and wait for someone to allow you  to leave.

That is how I've spent almost every day substitute teaching. Yesterday, I spent the day with a Kindergarten class in which I was instructed that their school is a "silent learning" school. No talking is allowed anywhere... except the playground. No talking in the classroom. No talking in the halls. No talking in the bathrooms. No talking at lunch. Nothing.

It is such an unnatural experience. I allowed my class yesterday to talk during free play times like stations (centers) and art. A teacher came marching into the room and informed the class that they were not following the "silent learning" rules. I was then chastised for not knowing their school and classroom rules. The children were not loud, quite the opposite. They were simply talking in regular, "inside voice" volumes. This is not the first time this has happened to me and is probably the reason I was banned from another school recently.

I am often asked, "How can we fix public schools?"

I'm beginning to think there is no fixing them. I am not allowed to have any voice (no pun intended) or say in how a classroom is managed. What's worse, the downturn in the way our society is instructed at public school is becoming much more strict and prison like than I've ever seen before.

Things I Learned From Public School Teachers

...that are useful in home education.

Last week I taught in a Kindergarten and 1st grade classes. Each teacher had some things that are smart that I realized I could use at home. Many things in public school are not useful at home (most really), but there are things that are useful in both circumstances.

Personal Dry Erase Boards
I have a large dry erase board, which is nice in a lot of ways when teaching a concept that I want to have both of us (or all of us) write on the board together or I want to write a lot of details. The drawback is that it takes up space and in our smaller rental we don't want to a) put big holes in the walls to put it up and b) use valuable wall space that is needed for all our furniture.

These personal sized dry erase boards are much better for spelling quizzes, math computations, and grammar practice. I have tried to reduce the amount of paper we use and these dry erase boards are PERFECT! The 1st grade teacher has them for each student and has them practice math problems and spelling on them while she teaches the lesson. It made it pretty easy to have the children show me their boards so I could quickly see who needed help. The second thing she had was to use socks as erasers instead of the flimsy erasers that come with the sets. Personally, it gets a lot more of the flakes erased than the eraser anyway, and you can always throw them in the wash. (It is also very easy to find "divorced or separated" socks). She has the students store their dry erase markers in the sock.

Rolling Carts
The kindergarten teacher I subbed for (and will sub every Wednesday through the end of the year) has rolling carts for each child under their tables. I also saw this used for a special education room. If I had a home school room I would definitely use the rolling carts. Right now, I like our "cubby" solution, but if I had younger children the rolling cart would be my choice.