Three days 'til break!!

Soooo, despite staying up waaaaaaaaay too late last night, I actually felt fine today. The days go so quickly, it's frightening. The morning was good overall, though my kids are not doing their homework very much. In January, I MUST have a stricter homework policy.

Also, I don't know if I'm too lenient with the kids. There are several students who are openly defiant to me on a near-daily basis, and I really just don't know how to handle it. It's extremely frustrating, and I can't figure out a way to just have them cooperate with me. It's not like I'm asking for the world- just for them to do some work and to not be cruel to other people. Hmmm... maybe that *is* asking the world of them.

So I have this nasty habit of going to the bathroom right before I have to pick up my class from lunch recess. The art teacher and I constantly vie for the (one) adult bathroom in our building, as this is both of our preferred times to go during the day. Somedays I get there before him, but he usually beats me there. Today, not only did he beat me (causing me to be a few minutes late picking up the class), but he had locked the door behind him (accidentally) after he left, which made me even later because I had to hunt down the key.

Aaaaaanyway, long story short, I was about 7 minutes late picking up my class from recess. Whoops. When I went outside to the spot where they line up, there were no students there! I went back inside to check my classroom, but there was no class! Who loses a class?! I was eventually informed by a recess aide that they were all seeing the principal. All of them. Turns out a lot of the students were throwing rocks, screaming, and just being little punks. Sigh.

I marched the kids back to the room and had them put their heads down for a few minutes. (Some teachers make their classes sit with their heads down for a full 30-45 minutes... I can't do that; it feels like such a waste of time.) After a few moments, I asked people to tell me what happened. I decided to practice school conduct with them, so I marched them back outside and lined them up against the wall where they normally line up. I told them that, for 20 minutes, there would be NO talking, and that they needed to sit where they were. Only 5 students (out of 23) were able to completely follow the directions. Sigh. However, it was cool to watch them entertain themselves. Without talking, about half the class managed to make an enormous dirt volcano, complete with red lava (a broken bracelet one of the students had). It was cool to see them deal with each other without words and without violence. Small steps, I guess.

Later, I had them back into two lines, and we picked up trash on the playground for 10 minutes. They were to do it in teams, and each team needed to stay in line. This proved a most difficult task for the students. They mostly worked well together, but there were some anger issues as well. They kids are so fascinating.

After the trash pick-up, we had our weekly class meeting. For once, it seemed to go relatively well. Upon the completion of the meeting, a parent had volunteered to come in to teach a lesson on Ireland and family heritage. Though the lesson was dry, I think it was nice for the students to have a guest speaker for a change. They were pretty well-behaved with the mother, and then it was time for them to pack up and go.

The last 5 minutes of the day seem to be the toughest. I asked one girl (who had a coat and two of her sweaters on the floor by her desk) to pick up her belongings. I asked calmly and politely, and her response was, "I don't want to." Our conversation went something like this:

"OK, well, just pick up your belongings, and then you can go home." (me)
"I don't want to!" (student)
"You don't have a choice. Just please pick up your things." (me)
"No!" (student)
"If you miss your bus, it'll be because you chose not to follow directions." (me)
"I'm not doing it!" (student)
"Well, you'll just wait here until it's picked up." (me)
"No!" (student)
"You know, the apology in the card you wrote me yesterday really means nothing to me right now, because you're doing the same thing you apologized for yesterday." (me)
"Fine, I'll pick up the stupid jacket. I didn't mean the card anyway. I wish you'd just left and gone to friggin' kindergarten." And she walked out the door.

I stood there, stunned. I wanted to cry, because I was both hurt and angry, but I didn't. I didn't chase after the student, either. I just really, really abhor situations like that where I don't know what to do. What the hell!? I just asked her to pick up some of her things on the floor. Ugh. She and four of my other students constantly overreact to simple requests or instructions. It's very annoying, and it really wears on me.

Ok, I must get home now. All in all, a very interesting day. Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday AND payday AND we only have a few more days 'til break!!