Is it okay to ever sit down in a lesson? My school says no.
A teacher got written up yesterday for sitting down during her lesson. The teacher said she gave a long lesson in cycles at the board for over 40 minutes. She was going over new material, helping students, and giving a rather complicated lesson. This teacher was literally sweating at then. While students were working she decided to sit next to a student that needed help, then the principal walked in and she got written up. Doesn’t said fair and that’s because it isn’t.
I get that we want teachers to actively walk around the room, help students, and go over work, but we are human too. There is a difference between sitting at your desk the entire period ignoring students and sitting down to help a student on a problem. The principal didn’t even take a second to figure out what was going on in the classroom, just walked by, saw a teacher sitting down and BOOM write up. Furthermore we should sit down when we are helping a student. Get on their level rather than tower over them as we help them through the problem. I always sit down or kneel on the floor when helping a student. It shows that I am working with them, helping them rather than just the authority figure that knows the right or wrong answer. I think it shows you respect what they say, their opinion, and value working with them. I sat down a dozen times today to help students on problems and guess what, not the student understands how to do the problem. Teaching doesn’t stop the moment you sit down.
What was the point of the write up? To say you cannot sit down at all? I can stand in class and still ignore my students. Standing or sitting is not the problem and again this principal didn’t take two seconds to investigate what was really going on. A question the principal maybe should have asked is why is the teacher exhausted after one lesson? Was the teacher working harder than the students? Was it a teacher focused lesson? Those questions sound instruction based and about what is best for the students. Those questions are also potentially addressing real problems. Sitting down for three minutes is not a real problem. The school saying it is, now that is a problem.
I get that we want teachers to actively walk around the room, help students, and go over work, but we are human too. There is a difference between sitting at your desk the entire period ignoring students and sitting down to help a student on a problem. The principal didn’t even take a second to figure out what was going on in the classroom, just walked by, saw a teacher sitting down and BOOM write up. Furthermore we should sit down when we are helping a student. Get on their level rather than tower over them as we help them through the problem. I always sit down or kneel on the floor when helping a student. It shows that I am working with them, helping them rather than just the authority figure that knows the right or wrong answer. I think it shows you respect what they say, their opinion, and value working with them. I sat down a dozen times today to help students on problems and guess what, not the student understands how to do the problem. Teaching doesn’t stop the moment you sit down.
What was the point of the write up? To say you cannot sit down at all? I can stand in class and still ignore my students. Standing or sitting is not the problem and again this principal didn’t take two seconds to investigate what was really going on. A question the principal maybe should have asked is why is the teacher exhausted after one lesson? Was the teacher working harder than the students? Was it a teacher focused lesson? Those questions sound instruction based and about what is best for the students. Those questions are also potentially addressing real problems. Sitting down for three minutes is not a real problem. The school saying it is, now that is a problem.
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