As a teacher I was fortunate enough to have some students who always wanted to be helpful. They always wanted to do something. These kids were a treat because they had such a positive attitude and they were of great help.
A class room teacher always has an amazing number of things to get done during a day. It was always nice to have the kid who wanted to do little jobs. Take something to the office(attendance forms), get something from the office, get the video, get the duplicated stuff, haul some books around: These kids saved a teacher many steps. It was interesting that there were two types of helpful kids. One kind of helpful kid was just plane helpful. The other kind of helpful kid was a little devious and wanted to get out of work or go for a stroll. These kids realized that they were helpful. They knew this message could go home and that would be a big plus for them.
Then some kids were very helpful and they didn't intend to be helpful and didn't know they were being helpful. Sometimes there were shenanigans going on that I couldn't catch. If I watched carefully, there was always some kid who knew where the nonsense was taking place and was watching and enjoying the action. If you could catch that kids eye and follow it you could find out exactly where the monkey business was going on. Usually the culprit was caught completely off guard and wondered how he had been caught.
One time I had someone in class who was either lighting matches or scratching caps for cap guns. Both were smelly and other kids would complain. They didn't know who was the culprit either. I really wanted to put a stop to this activity as it was dangerous. I had one sharp eyed observer who always knew where the action was. He was and extremely nice and well behaved boy. I watched him carefully. He was so interested in the goings on that he concentrated intently and I could see exactly who the bad guy was. I pounced on the culprit and that was the end of lighting matches until the next time.
So students were helpful in several ways and I appreciated all of them.
