Anonymous wrote:Middle school teacher here. I don't have time for that in a 45 minute class. There's just not.

I have my students sit down right away and start work. I do not let them come up to me in the beginning because they want to tell me a million things and ask questions. I have reminders posted on the board, and go over a few things verbally, which usually addresses most questions.

It may seem harsh but it is overwhelming when many students have different wants / needs / questions / concerns and your time is very limited. I understand where she is coming from. If they're not Learning about rocks right now; it just doesn't make sense. It brings the kids on a big tangent which is very hard to bring them back from and have them re focus.

Also, I don't want other students to think any day and be show and tell. Not when my class periods are 45 minutes long.

This is Kindergarten. Not middle school that OP is talking about.

And aren't most counties block scheduling these days to eliminate the jammed packed 45 min periods?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a slippery slope with letting one kid show off something they think is cool. Then every kid is going to want to. Or the questions start, and the teacher loses a solid half an hour that was already designated for a specific lesson. Sorry OP. It's a rock. Life goes on.

Plus 1 million. This in a nutshell!

-----Teacher

Teacher here, agree. I wish more than anything that we could spend time talking and sharing, but we don't. Someone every day brings in something cool and wants to share. But we just don't have time. A great teacher cares and wants your child to share and talk about fossils. Trust me on this. But we do not have the time.

Middle school teacher here. I don't have time for that in a 45 minute class. There's just not.

I have my students sit down right away and start work. I do not let them come up to me in the beginning because they want to tell me a million things and ask questions. I have reminders posted on the board, and go over a few things verbally, which usually addresses most questions.

It may seem harsh but it is overwhelming when many students have different wants / needs / questions / concerns and your time is very limited. I understand where she is coming from. If they're not Learning about rocks right now; it just doesn't make sense. It brings the kids on a big tangent which is very hard to bring them back from and have them re focus.

Also, I don't want other students to think any day and be show and tell. Not when my class periods are 45 minutes long.

At our school the kid would either have been encouraged to show the fossil at Show & Tell (which they still have at the K stage). If this was an older kid (like, first grader and up), then the teacher would have incorporated the fossil into their science lessons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a slippery slope with letting one kid show off something they think is cool. Then every kid is going to want to. Or the questions start, and the teacher loses a solid half an hour that was already designated for a specific lesson. Sorry OP. It's a rock. Life goes on.

Plus 1 million. This in a nutshell!

-----Teacher

Yep.

Show & Tell are bygone days. I'm not even sure that "show & tell" is politically correct either.

So much for encouraging confidence, promoting speaking in a group setting, pride in ownership, and all the other positives from the 30 seconds of showing off something special to you as an impressionable kindergartner.

Anonymous wrote:NP here. It's not just a rock, it's a fossil. It's cool but also educational. Shall we just extinguish any and all curiosity and desire to share something educational at school by kindergarten? Apparently, schools aren't for learning anymore, according to you people. They are just for turning children into mindless automatons.

Be a little more dramatic

A) There is pretty much no way it was actually a fossil
B) Teachers have very explicit benchmarks these kids need to be reaching by the end of the quarter/semester/year. Do you really want to hear from your teacher at the end of the year that your kid couldn't make PALS or DRA benchmarks and still can't add but HEY, WE TALKED ABOUT ROCKS EVERY TIME ONE OF OUR LITTLE EINSTEINS BROUGHT ONE IN!

NP here. It's not just a rock, it's a fossil. It's cool but also educational. Shall we just extinguish any and all curiosity and desire to share something educational at school by kindergarten? Apparently, schools aren't for learning anymore, according to you people. They are just for turning children into mindless automatons.

Anonymous wrote:It is a slippery slope with letting one kid show off something they think is cool. Then every kid is going to want to. Or the questions start, and the teacher loses a solid half an hour that was already designated for a specific lesson. Sorry OP. It's a rock. Life goes on.

Plus 1 million. This in a nutshell!

-----Teacher

Teacher here. This is super typical and I agree w pp that the teacher is prob used to this and not annoyed- everyone has a different approach for kids bringing things in. I also used to ask kids to leave nature in nature and return things to the outside- mainly because they start ripping off tree limbs to take inside of you let it happen too much

Also- I hear so many people complain about the teacher being regimented and not taking the time to explore. As a teacher, you also have soooo much pressure from parents to teach math reading writing etc beyond what used to be expected at a young age. There's no way to please everyone.
Maybe send a quick email to the teacher to say 'hey I realized this might have been annoying!' And see what she says. Or just let it be. If you really want to use it as a science exploring moment you can do that at home too by suggesting you take it home to show dad or siblings.

Anonymous wrote:Op and I want to specify that I am NOT upset! I feel terrible that we may have annoyed the teacher by not thinking of the logistics! I am now way upset about the rock, but rather, that I probably annoyed the teacher!

You didn't annoy her. She works with 5 year olds and deals with this all the time. Your 5 year old perceiving annoyance doesn't mean she really was. Your DD just didn't expect to hear no.

You can't always trust a K's report of what exactly happened. Maybe the teacher wasn't annoyed at all, but the kid was annoyed she couldn't show it off the way she wanted. I wouldn't over think it.

Op and I want to specify that I am NOT upset! I feel terrible that we may have annoyed the teacher by not thinking of the logistics! I am now way upset about the rock, but rather, that I probably annoyed the teacher!

It is a slippery slope with letting one kid show off something they think is cool. Then every kid is going to want to. Or the questions start, and the teacher loses a solid half an hour that was already designated for a specific lesson. Sorry OP. It's a rock. Life goes on.

Anonymous wrote:My kindergarten daughter yesterday at the park found a neat fossilized rock. She wanted to take it to show her class, and I told her she could ask the teacher if she could. When I asked her about it, she told me, in her 5-year-old way, that her teacher was sort of annoyed, and made her take it outside at recess if she wanted to show her class. My daughter was a little sad, not that that is my issue. Is this sort of thing annoying to teachers? In hindsight, it's probably annoying first thing in the morning. Thoughts?

I doubt the teacher was annoyed or that the teacher finds this sort of thing annoying. It's such a normal typical thing for kids to do. That's why there is show and tell. I also don't think this is a big deal that the teacher told her to take it out at recess. Sometimes there is time to look at things during class time and sometimes they have a lot on their plate for the day and recess is the only option if she is going to show her friends.. If it were me, I would have told my daughter that I don't think she was annoyed - just busy.

^you have no idea if she would or not. Kids bring in shit they find all the time and want to talk about, no teacher can accommodate all that. It also was probably not a fossil at all and the teacher wasn't about to lose 20 minutes of instruction so a kid could talk about a rock.