Teaching Boys.......

[DianaB]

We have a Wednesday night progam for kids at church. For girls, it's Missionettes and for boys, it's Royal Rangers, kinda' like boy scouts. Glen has been in charge of it for years and I've stayed away, only helping when he needed something small, like cupcakes or something.

Well, this year he was short on teachers starting out (we only have the progam while school is going on) so I volunteered. Last night was my third night of teaching. I spent most of all day yesterday getting my lesson ready and getting supplies around for games and crafts.

The church has a really neat program going on in the fact that we bus the kids in and feed them supper. Our ladies cook really nice meals for the kids.

Anyway, I have one little boy, Billy, who can NOT stop talking. Another, Ethan, wants to hit and tackle the others. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

I told the lesson (with difficulty) and we did crafts. I've been doing lessons on pirates and applying it to a Bible lesson so my crafts are also about pirates. Last week we made pirate hats and the boys got to decorate them. This week we made treasure maps out of brown paper grocery sacks. The boys got wild with the crayola markers and some how ended up under the tables. GRRRRR!!!!!

We finally made it outside to play a game. I was so excited because I though the boys would really enjoy a game called Cannonballs. Once outside, they ran off.......every which direction. Nobody wanted to hear the directions to the game. After a while we went back inside and I made them just sit until class was over. They weren't happy because they didn't get to play the game. GRRRRR!!!!!!

I DON'T UNDERSTAND BOYS!!!! I keep trying to think like a boy but I just can't. Glen told me that I don't have to teach if I don't want to but I know that he'll have trouble finding someone else and I don't think that having a helper will help. I need to do something to get the boys' respect so they'll listen to ME.

I'm just venting. I know that I'll go back next week and try it again. It just takes a lot of the fun out of it for me. I could just do a plain boring lesson and just let them color, run outside for awhile, then go home but that's not what I want to do.

[judy]

How old are the boys Diana? Boys have tons of energy don't they? I would give them several short activities which they have to focus on. If they are reading, you might also have them read out loud. They seem to quiet down, probably out of fear, when they have to read out loud.

How does the church feel about involving the parents if a child is not behaving? I found that a lot of boys respond to that. You can also call them on the side and ask "I know your mother did not raise you to ______. What would she say if I told her what you are doing?"

I also would not take them outside until they learn how to behave inside. Let them run around at home!

[Janet]

Good advice Judy!!! Also...if they don't behave...they don't get a treat or whatever it is you give them. There is also the corner they can stand in when misbehaving.

[gja1000]

I know nothing about teaching young boys - but I have always heard they are more immature than girls of the same age. That may be true or not. It sounds like they have lots of unchanneled energy! I'd consult a teacher of the grade they are in to see how she handles these sorts of problems. It's like they don't respect you evidenced by not listening. So how to handle that??? - maybe a lesson from the bible on respect or something like that. Maybe an activity where they have to demonstrate respect (don't have a clue what that might be???) I'm just guessing, as I don't really know much about young kids.

[Blueyes]

Maybe the preacher needs to stop by for a little visit. Kinda like talking to the principal

My sons and grandsons don't (didn't) behave like that. They really don't Are these kids usually there or are they there so their parents can have a night off??

[DianaB]

Sorry, I did leave out their ages. They are kindergarten and first grades. Glen cut out 2nd grade in order to make my class smaller and easier to handle. Ha!!

The boys are bused in so there's usually not a parent involved. There is a guy at church that I can call and he'll take the boy into the adult church. That might work. I think that he also gives the boy a talk as well. A lot of parents send their kids to just get them out of their hair for awhile. Usually the ones that cause the most trouble have the saddest home life. Thanks for all of the ideas!!!

[pope1982]

Originally Posted by DianaB

I DON'T UNDERSTAND BOYS!!!!

You said a mouth full! Lucky for us, they tend to stay stuck at a juvenile age most of their lives while we try to figure them out. How thoughtful! lol

[Marilyn]

With regard to the lesson plans, we have some really good material to use. We get a teacher's manual and student workbooks with some good ideas for songs, drills, games, etc. each week to reinforce each lesson, along with visuals to illustrate each lesson. However, you have to take the ideas and turn them into useful materials. Either using poster board, construction paper, printing things from clip art on the computer, etc. When I work up a weeks lesson, I put all the materials and prepared visuals in a page protector with the lesson number printed on it. When I'm finished teaching it, I put all the things that I've prepared back in the page protector and into a prepared binder. At the end of the quarter, there are 13 lessons with all the material in a binder ready to teach it next time. This is what I left behind.

And, no, most of the other teachers are not so organized. They do not keep the materials together. Every 4 years, the material repeats, and I guess they figure someone else will be teaching it in 4 years. We are just starting a new rotation, and my 4 years of binders is beginning it's repeat, and I'm in a different class.

There is some of the leftover material left in storage areas in some of the classrooms and in the teacher's workroom. We hope to have a workday soon to get it all together and figure out just what we do have and what we need to buy to make it all complete and useable.

We have a lot of really good Bible teachers with lots of wonderful ideas. We just need to capture them and make them useable for the future.