Toddler Jigsaw Massacre

It takes a village in and out of the classroom

My head buried in the corner of the classroom, I take deep breaths. 2 of the 14 students were able to expand their minds. The rest caught in the whirlwind of chaos and incompetence.

As I am standing there, breathing in, breathing out, sweet Jasmine is tapping at my leg. She does not understand what I am doing. To avoid scaring her, I gain my composure and turn to her, muster a smile, and say,

“Go back to your seat Jazzy Jaz.”

She turns and starts walking back to her seat. In typical toddler fashion, she never makes it. She drops her, now rolled up, piece of cardstock on the ground. She walks past her seat and wanders over to the 13 other students. All helping themselves to the toys in the corner.

I see the devastation of my failed lesson and am overwhelmed with frustration. I walk to my co-teacher and say,

“You are a teacher, you need to teach.”

“This is too hard for them, they can’t do it.”

“Then why did Derrick and Hertha do it in less than a minute each with a little guidance?”

“We don’t have time to do each one of them. There are only four teachers.”

To avoid any more unpleasantries, I turn and walk out of the classroom.

A few hours earlier

During snack time I cut up 15 pieces of paper with a printed pile of toys on them. The intended lesson objective was to recognize shapes, patterns, and develop spatial awareness. It’s an appropriately challenging activity for 3–4 year old’s.

It requires guidance from their educators.

The plan was to use glue sticks to return the image to its original shape.

The calm before the storm

I sat down in front of the class and showed the students a few of the puzzles we have in our cognitive play area. The ones not ransacked and in taters. We took turns working through them and practiced the target word “Puzzle.”

Once complete, I took one of the jigsaw puzzles and original image and sat down on the floor in front my students. I demonstrated how to find the images in the pieces and put them on the paper to recreate the picture.

Eager to do their own, we all went and sat at our respective places at the tables.

I dished out the puzzles to each one of the students and began working with Derrick first.

With a little guidance he found the corresponding images in the pieces and put them on the blank paper where they belong. He pointed, I glued. It took us 1 minute to put the picture back together. He was happy and proud, I was happy and proud.

I moved to Hertha. She is sharp. She picked it up faster than Derrick. She pointed I glued and in no time we finished.

Once finished with Hertha I look up and see my assistant took the liberty to give every student a glue stick. The other 14 students are now gluing puzzle pieces to their heads, the table, and in no order.

Some students are gluing the windows.

All the pieces mixed together. Any attempt to salvage the activity from this point was futile.

I walk to the corner of the classroom and begin my breathing exercises.

Storm out

I left the room after my failed attempt to get through to my assistant teacher.

I needed to get out. The students do not need to see me angry. I go downstairs and vent to one of my co teachers who also suffers from a lack of support in the classroom.

My students are falling behind, and their habits are getting worse. There is no unified classroom management. I am concerned.

After a few minutes of venting to my fellow foreign teacher, I make my way back to the classroom.

Photographed failures

When I return to the classroom all the students have abandoned their puzzles. The puzzle pieces now scattered around the classroom with varying layers of glue on them. The 14 pieces of card stock have manifested into varying shapes and sizes.

My co-teachers are scrambling to complete all 14 puzzles.

Why? The lessons lost.

They are only worried about taking pictures to send to the student’s parents. They do not care if the students develop the above mentioned skills.

I watched in disbelief as my co-teachers assembled each one of the puzzles. Once complete they arbitrarily assigned a student’s name to it. Then handed it to them and took a picture of them as they stood in the wake of a destroyed classroom and a sea of toys.

Hertha and Derrick the only two students who gained any knowledge from the exercise. None of my co-teachers care. The only thing they care about is the pictures.

My final thoughts

In anger, I filled out my observations for the day.

“I am in a classroom by myself, My co-teachers actively work against me. They are more concerned with pictures than teaching students. That is why we have tons of pictures of below average students”

Is there any lesson to gain from this?

I don’t know. I have tried to give more detailed instructions to my co-teachers but they never listen. I can feel my class slipping farther and farther behind. My co-teachers are too busy taking pictures to notice.

To all the parents out there

When you are evaluating a school for your child, read between the lines. The sales pitch rarely matches the product.

To all the educators

We need to be teachers first and photographers second.