Em Holliday

Officially I am on Internship but having had three and half weeks off now with some unnamed illness I haven't seen much of the classroom! Anyway when I was in with my mentor teacher she and her team teacher were bemoaning the rate at which rubbers, pencils and rulers disappeared into the student void, never to be seen again in the usual student borrowing style.

Hah - here I could be of help! (It's so hard to feel usful on Practicum when you feel like such a burden). On my very first practicum I saw the following technique used - I thought it cute and amusing - I can now see how brillantly it works. It has a very simple concept which is...

You take something from me - I take something from you. Basically the kids need to give insurance against every item they borrow.

SO, every time a child borrows a pencil, an eraser, a ruler, sharpener or other such item they must leave a shoe with the teacher. Upon return of the item they get their shoe back. Simple. Brillant. Works wonders.

I did laugh at one child who, upon learning of this new classroom arrangment, said "but you can't take our shoes, we need them" Well, yes that it the point. So our classroom is no equipped with a show basket and many shoeless ( and occasionally jumperless) students.