Tie your dang shoes!

As a teacher, it's interesting what you have to teach that is not in the curriculum or any test, yet still very important for your student s to know and for your sanity.

Today I'm going to talk about shoe tying.

Here in Kuwait it is SHOCKING A) how many students can't tie their shoes and B) just how old some of these students are. They don't need to. The nanny does it for them. Following the lead from Austin, my awesome co-worker last year, one of the very first things I did with my students was have a lesson on tying shoes. I told them and sent a note home asking them to wear shoes that can tie and we actually watched a video, discussed and practiced tying shoes. It was even homework for them. for the first week.

It was fun to see just how excited and proud my students were to learn this. They are more independent because of it and they learned they can do things they thought they couldn't. We also talked about being open minded and trying new things because there is more than one way to tie your shoes. I know at least three.

So today, as my class was lined up for music and being the best class ever at walking and lining up for music- seriously, the best class at this and they are working hard to keep that reputation- the 4th grade class was coming out of the music room. I noticed a couple of 4th graders had their shoes untied so I told them they should tie their shoes. They bent over and began and after a second one of the students said, "Ms. I don't know how."

Now- I probably shouldn't have done this, but I turned to my class and said, "Would any of my 2nd graders like to show this 4th grader how to tie his shoe?" Hands shot up and I picked a boy in my class to help him. Some- most- of his class laughed at him, but it was in a playful not hurtful way. Really, he was laughing too and seemed to think it was funny as well. I don't think I scarred him... I hope I didn't.

Luckily, I happened to be teaching this 4th grade class later today. (long story about covering for other teachers we don't have time to go into here) I took time to talk to the class about how it is ok that he didn't know how to tie his shoes because he was never taught and was never told he needed to. We also took about 5 mins of class to have a shoe tying lesson. He was NOT the only one in the class that did not know how, and after this morning they were eager to learn. They actually really liked it.

We also talked about the different ways to tie your shoe and I gave the class a homework assignment. They need to go home and do a YouTube search on how to tie your shoe and they need to practice. The next time they see me after music class they need to know how to tie their shoes. If they already know how to tie their shoes then they need to learn a new way to tie their shoes.

We'll see how it goes next week. :)

Here's the new way I just learned by watching YouTube.... I'm up to 4 ways to tie my shoe!