Math Class

I have "Math" class with the seven year olds, which is absolutely chaotic sometimes. There are about ten students, each with his or her own activity book, and each of them are at a different place in that activity book. The class is thirty minutes long, and goes something like this:

Me:
"Hey everyone! It's math time! Let's get out our math books."

Everyone:
"Nooooo" "Water please!" Batha roooom please!"

At this point, the three "good" students get their math books out. Another three just sit there in a daze, and say and do nothing. The remaining students will clamor for "batha rooom!!!" and will eventually attempt a jailbreak. If I stop the first kid, their revolution is usually thwarted. If I don't, almost the entire class is likely to escape in the ensuing chaos. They usually go fill up their water cups or go to the bathroom (whether they need to or not), which is for them, much preferable to sitting in class.

Me:
"Open up your books, get out your pencils!"

Everyone scrambles to get their pencils, which are, for some reason, never at hand. They are in drawers, on the floor, anywhere but with the student. Then it becomes a mad dash to the pencil sharpener. They will sharpen and sharpen those pencils down to little stumps if allowed.

For the rest of class, several students will continuously call "Tea-e-cher! Tea-e-cher! Help-a me please!"

They will yell this once or twice, and then, if I'm not already helping them, they will scream it at the top of their lungs. Or they will get out of their seat, and grab onto whatever part of me they can grab on to. Often times the math problems include English instructions that are way past the students' level of understanding, so I need to be able to read, understand, and demonstrate the problem to a student in about 20 seconds so I can deal with the next issue, or else whatever remaining order that exists will disappear.

There's way too much stuff happening to be able to deal with it all, or even half. So the first thing I do is adjust my expectations. I'm happy if I can help a few students during class, and the classroom is not entirely destroyed.

Some days are better than others with math class. Today was a good day. I got the most troublemaking student to do work. I tried less discipline than last time, and more positive reinforcement. I praised the kids who were doing work. When John, the troublemaker, did work, I think he was genuinely surprised that I said "good job," and gave him a high five. I think he's mostly used to getting yelled at.

All of this happens in the blink of an eye.