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The Brown Bag Teacher

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Questions I Will No Longer Answer

As teachers, we are asked 1 zillion questions (approximately) each day, meaning we spend many of our precious minutes answering questions. Now, I am all about those ‘real’ questions that involve students grappling with a new topic or trying to understand something more deeply. I am not at all about questions that I answer on a daily basis that disrupt instruction, and students should already know the answer to. Many times I feel that these questions are asked because students do not take the time to think about the answer.

Some of my FAVORITE questions include…
(1) I’m finished. Where do I put my paper?

(2) Where is the stapler?
(3) May I have a post-it for my book?
(4) I’m finished. What should I do now?

OHMYGOODNESS! After approximately eight weeks of school, nothing gets me more fired up inside than these questions. During the first month of school, I will totally answer your question. At this point in the year, not a chance.

Fall Break gave me the chance to reflect on my teaching and how my classroom was running. As a part of this process, I realized a lot of the frustration I was feeling throughout my day was a results of questions, asked by students, that they should know the answer to. So, to put this particular issue behind me, I made a set of posters entitled, “Questions I Will No Longer Answer.” {you may grab it here from Drop Box}

I used binder rings to connect the questions and hung them in the room. Last Monday, I introduced the questions to my friends and we reviewed the answers to the 4 questions I chose to display. FRIENDS! IT IS MAGIC. LIKE WHOA! I know I am yelling, but IT’S MAGIC. It’s actually feels like my kids are 9 weeks into school and are trained – WAHHHHHWHOOOOOOOO!

Only 1 student has asked me ANY of the identified culprit questions in a week, and I just walked away. Another classmate helped the friend out after I was gone!

Do you ever get tired of answering the same questions?

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Comments

  4. The questions that annoy me the most are the ones I just answered!!! For instance, you tell your students that they need to skip lines when writing and someone raises their hand and says, "Do I need to skip lines?" At this point in the year I will refuse to answer those. I will say something like, "I just gave that direction. You need to ask someone who heard the directions." Loved reading your post today!

    Stephanie
    Forever in Fifth Grade

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  8. Oh yes, I feel your pain!!! My usual comebacks are, "Asked and answered." or "Ask three before me." And then one of my other lovelies will help the student. I totally believe in student responsibility for information that has been appropriately presented. I am going to add these to the mix. Thanks!

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  12. Hahaha – thanks, Susie! At this point they are just a normal part of my classroom and have really helped out. We have the "3 and then, ask me" rule, so that has been helpful, too! 🙂 I'll definitely be revisiting and reviewing these after we get back from Winter Break! -Catherine

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  13. Love this – would've LOVED it when I was in the classroom. (And may use should I return.) But you left out my biggest pet peeve: "what are we doing today?" or even worse "are we doing anything today?"

    After the first few days, kids should know the objectives for the day (or class period) are listed on a designated board and/or discussed the day before…

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