Today Was a Pretty Good Day

Today, my students were cooperative and actually lined up without arguing and ridiculing. Yesterday, it took us five extra minutes to get ready to go to P.E. because they resisted my insistence that they had to get into their "line order" which I instituted to eliminate certain people always getting together in line and talking and stirring up trouble. It works sometimes...line order, I mean. But, there are a core group who resist and drag their feet.

Today, no one stole anything. Yesterday, we had some special guests at our school who come and teach the students how to create a very fine mask---some years it is an animal, this year it was a masquerade mask with embellishments. They bring templates to trace and cut out from construction paper. They provide craft punches so that we can make the embellishments and, every child goes home with a terrific mask they have made. However, when it was time to gather up the guests' materials...we couldn't find all the parts. We searched the paper recycling bin, in case those few templates had been accidentally thrown out. I asked everyone to look all over, up and down. Still no templates, and no punches. Oh, we had most of them--just not all of them.

I had some suspects in mind. They'd already been prevented from sneaking a big pile of our construction paper into their desks when one of my parent volunteers caught them. But, now it was time for the culminating activity, when all the students meet up in the cafeteria with their masks, and help the guests write a quick song about their experiences, and sing and show off their fabulous creations.  So, I took my class down, but plucked out my three suspects, made them follow me to get their backpacks, and we went to the office. Sure, enough, when they had to empty out those bags on a table in the conference room, what did we find but all the missing items! Plus, big piles of more construction paper they'd managed to steal after all.

I was so outraged. Luckily, I didn't have to speak. That was the administrator's job. I left them with her, and I returned to my other students for singing. Phone calls were made to parents. The stolen materials were returned to the guests. My students were very, very quiet when they arrived at my room just in time for dismissal. I was still so upset, I could hardly look at them.

Today, I received contrite notes of apology. The three of them were model citizens. I was asked by one of them to please call her grandmother. I have a relationship with grandmother from a previous year, with an older sister. She's a very nice woman, we get along well. The conversation after school was excellent. She described the tears, and regrets. We discussed the responsibility of being the friend who should set a good example for others less endowed with stable homes and caring adults. It was a great conversation. I expect I'll have very little trouble the rest of the year.

That's good, too, because I was ready to quit forever after yesterday. That was just the last straw on top of all the back-talk and eye-rolling and disobedience I'd been laboring with the last month with them. I hope it lasts, because in 40 more school days, I won't have to ever think about any of them again. I just want to get there with my Felony-Free teaching career intact.