6th Graders Need Help

Okay, I know 6th graders are really very young. They are still children, only 12 years old, at the oldest, and some are even 10 turning 11!

But sometimes they are just so dumb!

Not always the bad kind... generally just the tiresome kind. (Honestly, this is also the funny kind, so it works out).

For example, the kids were working through a practice magazine, and we were focusing on compare/contrast and cause and effect.

For the 3rd item on their To-Do List, they needed to come and get a handout from me, and then complete one side for step 3 and the other for step 4. I handed the paper to them, but the second side was face up. They then return to their seats.

Most of the kids figured it out, and flipped the paper over. Most of them. But some, my advanced kids especially, came back up and handed me the paper and told me I gave them the wrong one.

I just shake my head at them. The other kids are quick to explain, most of the time, but sometimes they just stand there staring at me, until I can't take it and I laugh at them.

I tease them, and tell them they are very silly. They always laugh with me, understanding they are silly.

I love them, I really do, but sometimes it's just too much what causes them to have difficulty managing. I mean, should you really have to tell a 6th grader to turn their paper over?

Another thing that gets me is why they think I don't know it's them talking when they are supposed to be working silently.

It's not that hard to tell it's a particular student. It sounds like them, first thing. Since no one else is talking, it's pretty easy to figure out the part of the room the sound is coming from, and then narrow it down to the child who's leaning over their desk in a sneaky manner.

Add to that I placed all of my sneakiest kids within easy sight (and sound) of my desk, and I know exactly who it is, and generally exactly what they're saying.

So then, when they tell me, "Oh, but it wasn't me who was talking, Ms. Language Arts Lady! I would never talk when I should be working!!" I feel irritated. This type of dumb is the bad kind.

Then, when I had caught one of my students talking, and he told me he was talking because he was almost finished, and therefore had time, I ask to see his work.

He had written almost nothing, and it was so messy he might as well have been writing in a foreign language. Actually, it might have been better, because then I could have plugged it into an online translator, and gotten sense out of it.

Add to the horrible handwriting the fact he didn't add the quotation marks as he was supposed to do (he just copied random sentences).

He hasn't even gotten to handout, and when I asked to see his handout, he said, very belligerently, "What's a handout?"

Again, irritating.

So, while 6th graders are so much fun, and funny, and great to be around, sometimes their silliness, which is a large part of their amusement, can be very irritating.

What do you mean, "What's a handout?" You have been doing handouts in school since Kindergarten.

Comments like that really test the patience of teachers.