Happy Humpday Haiku #31

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle As It Applies to the Classroom

You can't ask a well-

Behaved child to behave, then

Observe how he acts.

            The school hired an advertisement agency to produce a TV commercial showing the children and the teachers interacting. The director and the owner wanted to exhibit the highest standard of English ability at our school, so they chose to film my 7 year olds and my coworker's 7 year olds. I can't speak to the behavior of my colleague's students, but I can claim that no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to observe my students a I observe them when we are alone in the classroom. Maybe that's a little intuitive. However, my students seem to actively stray from their normal classroom behavior whenever there is so much as a parent who walks by the classroom door. 

            During our first open class, where parents were invited into the classrooms to watch their children during a lesson, several of my students suddenly acquired new voices in which to participate with. A few others purposely gave the wrong answers to routine questions. Rather than being reserved, my children act as outlandishly as possible. Today witnessed a litany of purposely incorrect answers, obnoxious whining, and general disregard of any semblance we have for a classroom code of conduct. Perhaps this gives new meaning to the tired excuse "It/He/She/They normally aren't like this."