Oh, Tuesday...

So today was an interesting day. The morning started out well; the math lesson went well, and then we reconvened as a whole class. We did a quick kinesthetic (sp?) grammar review that was fun, and then did stretching and The Macarena before music class. The kids were actually good in music!! That almost never happens. During reading, I had several boys who just wouldn't do their work... most annoying. They were disruptive, so I put the whole class to work, silently and on their own. It worked well.

The afternoon started well, with reading aloud and then art class. After art, however, the day was a cruel rug ripped out from underneath me. All we had to get through was 10 words of vocab (where we define and draw a picture of each word) and social studies (where we were to vote on the actual issues on Arizona's midterm election ballot). That's it.

Two boys in the back would NOT stop talking, though, so I walked back to let them know that they won't be able to sit next to each other anymore. That's where the excrement hit the fan, so to speak... one boy (who is one of my "runners") decided that I was being completely unfair. I told him I wouldn't argue with him, and I walked away to continue our vocab work. When I got to the front of the classroom, I turned around, and there was the boy, seething. In slow motion, I saw him pick up his chair and hurl it across the room. Thank goodness one boy was just coming back from the bathroom (and not in his seat), or else he would've gotten hit in the head. The chair knocked over another chair on top of a desk, causing two chairs to nearly injure several students. I told the chair-thrower that he had to leave immediately, and he just stood there. The rest of the class watched, mouths open, to see what would happen next. I told him he could leave or I could escort him out. He still diddn't budge. I walked over to him and took his arm to lead him out of the room. He became irate and fought against me. He punched me in the arm and hit me, and started yelling. Luckily, my door was open so that the staff members in the library across the hall could hear the commotion. One ran to get the principal, and at that point the student fled the classroom. I tried to continue the lesson, but the class seemed very shaken up.

We spent the end of the day discussing what had happened, and what we can do about controlling anger. During the last 10 minutes before school let out, the principal came to debrief our class on the outcome of the incident. The student has been removed from my classroom for at least a month (probably 2) and is on in-school suspension. I told the students it's their right to feel safe in the classroom, and that no one can mess with that. We actually had a good talk.

When the kids were gone for the day, I had to go to the office to fill out an incident/injury report, even though I'm physically fine. What a day! For now, I go vote and then on a date (I have a pseudo-life!!).