snaps and claps

Snaps and claps? Well, according to the "manual" of my new reading program, snaps and claps are the "signals" I should be giving my students to indicate that I want them to respond. At first I thought it a bit odd, but given how green I am, I decided to give it a go. So as I point to a word on the board, or a word in the book, there I stand clapping and snapping. At first the students thought this was funny. I did, too.

What's not funny is how many times I am prompted in the script to snap and clap. Quite literally, I was prompted to snap/clap approximately 30 times. Mr. B got tired of snapping and clapping. The students' amusement with the snapping and clapping began to wane. My hand began to hurt. My fingers began to go numb, then cramped. So I just started to bang my foot on the floor as a signal. Much easier. Problem solved, or so I thought.

For some reason, I never gave a thought to the kind woman that teaches directly underneath me. So for 5 periods today, I stood and thumped by big ass steel toe boot on the floor innumerable times. Apparently, this was readily audible in said teacher's classroom. Said teacher was understandably not pleased, and sent a student to my room to ask that I cease and desist. I, of course, stopped and then immediately felt a fair amount of guilt. Why, I asked, did she just not call me?

That mystery was soon solved.

Apparently one of my dear students decided that I had called security on him one too many times, so he elected to steal the receiver to the telephone.

How do I know this? The dumb ass left his book bag on his desk during last period, and failed to cinch it closed. And guess what was sticking out of it?