Saddening...

I'm all for using new and original teaching methods, but a line does have to be drawn.

Even if it was some 'in' joke or saying within the class, I don't think that this is really appropriate.

For one thing, a teacher must be very careful when using anything that is 'in' with the class. Different children have different reactions to things, and so must be treated accordingly. What might bring howls of happy laughter from one child, won't from another.

For example, if a child dropped a pot of paint on the classroom floor, they might find it very humorous to be called a 'doofus' by the teacher in a jovial way - they might look at this as a distraction from their intitial embarrassment, and join in with the laughter from the teacher & the other children, as they would look at this as their 'mistake' being laughed off as nothing more than a humorous incident.

Other children might not look at it in this way, though, and may need a gentler, quieter approach, where their blushes are spared.

Either way, all children are very much individuals with their own characters and dispositions, with individual needs of their own, and part of the art of teaching is identifying these needs and characters and acting accordingly.

Personally, when it comes to the child dropping the paint pot, I'd crouch down next to them and explain that it doesn't matter, it happens all the time to just about everyone, and they should go get themselves a fresh pot of paint. I'd clear the paint up, it wouldn't be any hassle.

If any of the other kids gave the child a hard time about their dropping the paint, I'd ask them if they'd never done anything like that. In fact, I could turn it into a class discussion about tolerating the mistakes of others. That would be a profitable use of class time, imo.

I would never, ever put anything that could be reagrded as personal remarks on any child's work, though. As a teacher I'd be there to encourage the children, not make them feel bad about anything...

T.