Some things I have tried...

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Some things I have tried...
By Laura H.

I TOTALLY can relate to this phenomenom (sp?) Here are somet things I have tried and have worked with getting "in tune" with my fourth grade boys.

1.Let them know that you are on their side.
In my school the boy
to girl ratio is out of wack. I had 15 girls and 10 boys. They always felt out numbered. I might strike up a conversation about baseball or basketball.
2. Go to their games.
I was invited many times to my students games and I would Go! Yeah, it wasn't my favorite weekend activity, but they really appreciated my support.
3. This may be WAY off base, but I tried out some of

the activities that they enjoyed, like X-Box and Sportscenter. One of my boys really loved the Lord of the Rings series and since I had seen the movie, we talked about it. I tried to suggest other series of books that he might enjoy.
4. One really cool thing I did was had lunch with each boy in my class. They could bring a friend and they seemed to really "brag" that they got to eat lunch with the teacher. I also ate with the girls, but the boys really thought this was cool.
5. Finally, humor is key. I could see a major difference between humor with my girls, and humor with my boys. Their humor is almost sarcastic (although this wouldn't be my typical way of communicating with them).

I hope this helps. This was only my first year of teaching, so I am in no way an expert. I do feel that I was really successful in getting my boys to read and feel excepted in my room.

Laura
p.s. I hope everything is spelled correctly. I was typing really fast, and too tired to pr