Student Story - the "Amen" Factor

Story 1: One story that I often got a chance to tell my classes was about a student in my high school class when I was their age. This story is true. There were a lot of characters in my high school science class even when I was a student and one of them was able to fall asleep while holding his hands clasped together on the desk.

I don't know how he was able to do it, but when the teacher called on him to answer a question, he always managed to wake up and quite brightly say "Amen" which became a great frustration for the teacher and a great joy to the class. It seemed like this student had found the perfect way to get a little sleep right in front of the teacher.

One day, however, the student had again fallen asleep, but this time he must have been in a deeper sleep and was again noticed by the teacher. The teacher started to walk toward his desk and the class became very quiet. The teacher got almost to the desk and the student fell out of his seat, hit the floor and suddenly said "Amen". Well, the scam was over and the student never tried to use this trick again. The rest of the class still had an admiration for this trick however and some of us tried the same trick, but failed.

When I tell this story to the students in my class these days, I think that they gain quite a bit and so do I. They are reminded that at one time I was in their position, a student in a classroom. They are reminded that their teacher was a child and either did stupid things or had others that did stupid things around them and that this teacher and possibly other teachers are "human beings". The deviation from the lesson plan for the day is very brief, but you can gain the attention of the class and perhaps a bit of respect at the same time. The respect might be the result of your being open enough to share a bit of your youth with them.

Even if the stories you relate to your class are not directly your own, they can be used. If you were to use this particular story in your classroom, you could say: "Another teacher told me a story about something that happened in their classroom." There are many stories I could tell my classes that can be used to help students think about their actions. We often tell students "Don't run in the halls.", but we seldom give them meaning other than "You might slip and fall." One day I noticed one of our teachers was obviously very pregnant. I made it a point to tell all my classes a story about what could happen if they were running and ran into this teacher." I was careful to point out that this story was not one that I would want to have happen for real and I told them of course they might also slip and fall themselves, but the potential danger was much higher." In the world today we would call this a "Worst Case Scenario". I was extremely pleased to see these students not only stop running in the hallway, but many of them actually started to walk with the pregnant teacher, protecting her from others that may not have heard the story.

One of the oldest traditions is storytelling, many aspects of a subject can be presented in story format. A great deal of history is presented from a story perspective, it is interesting that we do so much less of this in other content areas. I am glad that I had the experiences I have had and have experiences that I can convert into stories and with some even becoming a "gaining of attention" part of a lesson.