Holiday Presents... Plus Updates on Stubborn and Trouble

When it's almost time for the holiday break, I start thinking of things that I could get for my students as a little gift, just a little something so they know that I care.

For an elementary teacher, it is slightly easier, I feel, since they have younger students who are happier with less expensive things, plus there are far fewer of them. Their class sizes go from about 14-25 generally, though of course there are classes that have a lot more. So it's easier to spend $1 on each student, or even up to about $3, perhaps.

I have somewhere between 100-150 students. Spending $1 each is crazy, and something I just cannot afford.

So I wrestle with wanting to get them something, and the practicality of it.

My first year, I bought each of the kids a candy cane and a pencil that had red or green glitter all over it, and tied them together with pretty ribbons, and curled the ribbon. Very cute, and it was something they could enjoy, since every single middle school student loses their pencil. (Sometimes, twice a day).

This caused a little heartache directly after the holidays, since the students were thrilled with the glittery pencils (they were really cute) and since they were all identical, it was hard to know which pencil belonged with which kid. So there was top of their voice yelling matches about pencil thieving.

So, after that craziness, I might have learned my lesson, and chosen something different for the next year. But of course, I didn't. I did the same thing, but could only find some of the red or green glitter pencils, so I had to substitute them with red AND green glitter pencils.

The children, every single one of them, decide immediately upon seeing the pencils, which one they MUST HAVE OR DIE.

And they fight over which one they actually get. I am a strong proponent of you'll like what you get and be grateful for it, but you are allowed to trade if it is quiet and fair and everyone is happy at the end. 6th graders, full of sugar, looking forward to their holiday plans, are seldom quiet.

So that was fun.

This year I decided something new was in order, so I found some cute gift bags that were 30 for $1, then found mechanical pencils that were relatively cheap, (you can buy them in bulk and save quite a bit, I've found), and then got a big bag of Starbursts, Dum-Dum lollipops, and holiday mints.

So, I then packaged all them in the little baggies, using my best friend as cheap (okay, free) labor to tie the bags neatly.

It was quite a long task, let me tell you, and I think if I had not been watching television while I was doing it, I would have gone mad.

The nice thing, though, was the kids really seemed to appreciate them.

And I found out that a large bag of Dum-Dum pops contains 300 lollipops. So next time I need a lot of candy for a low price, I know where to go. No wonder Halloween candy is almost always about 40% of the little things... they're cheap!

After I gave out my gifts, the students gave me mine at the end of the week. My first year teaching, I got so much stuff, it was insane. Gift cards, candy, coffee, jewelry (mostly made by my students, but hey, it was mostly pretty), and candles. I was overwhelmed, and very thankful. The parents mostly included notes that told me how much they appreciated me. I was thrilled to know I was making a difference, plus I got some nice stuff!

Last year I didn't get very much at all. Maybe 5 gifts total, but last year was a really rough year with really rough kids. (The 7th grade teachers this year are now dealing with the same stuff as we did last year...)

This year I got a nice amount of lovely things. Cookies, candy, gift cards...

I think the favorite thing I got was a huge tray of cookies that my student had made and decorated. Sugar cookies, gingerbread men, very traditional. Very cute. And very, very good.

Now, moving on to some of my students I have written about before...

Trouble is really in trouble now... he was in and out of school right before the break, since he was constantly getting referrals and then getting sent home as his consequence. Well, now, instead of this continuing all the rest of this year, then next year, until he eventually drove us all mad, they are sending him to one of the alternative schools in our area. This will help him catch up with what he has missed, since he is really low, plus give him a very strict structure, so he can't get into too much trouble. The hope is, scare him now, and he'll be fine for the rest of school. I really do hope it works for him. He's so young to be behaving this way.

Stubborn is still stubborn, of course. He had been doing much better recently (at least in my class!) and had been doing some of his work.

The day I was giving out the bags to the students, he had a bad day. We were taking down notes from a PowerPoint slideshow I had created to teach Main Idea/Supporting Detail (tons of fun, let me tell you!) and he was mostly working on the notes. I did notice him messing around with his pen, though, and I was keeping an eye on him, because it's best to stop him early on in his distraction and get him right back on track.

I notice his pen doubled as a flashlight and laser pointer.

I hate laser pointers. They cause lots of problems.

So, I watched him shine the laser light into his eye instead of doing the notes. So I ask him to bring me the pen. He quickly tries to get his hands on a different pen, but I was too smart for him.

"Bring me the one in your hand now," I tell him.

He does, and I try it for myself. I tell him he doesn't need it, and he tells me he doesn't use the light or the pointer. I said, good, because then you really don't need it.

"But I need it to WRITE!" he informs me.

So I pop the top off (which has the light and pointer) and give him the bottom, pen part.

Then he shows me his paper, and tells me the pen doesn't really work (which it had been, but just had run out of ink). I said, great! Now you can borrow a pencil from me, and I gave him one of mine. He sat down and sulked. I threw the pen away. This made him really, really mad.

I found a pen I didn't need, and gave it to him, since he apparently needed a pen. He immediately knocked it to the floor.

This irritated me immensely.

"Pick it up, now!" I told him, and other things adding up to how dare you be so rude, etc, etc.

He just sat there, echoing his name.

I told him unless he picked it up right now, I was calling for the administrator to come and get him out of my classroom.

He sat there for a few more seconds, then picked it up.

I then ignored him, since I didn't want to antagonize him, but I also didn't want to acknowledge him while he was behaving so poorly.

When it was time to leave, I was giving the bags out, and he brought me back my pencil. I said he could keep it, if he didn't have another one. When I tried to hand him the bag, he said, "No thank you, I don't deserve it."

How sweet was that!

"You're right, you don't, at least not today, but I want you to have it anyway. And thank you for knowing that your behavior was not okay."

Anyway. A very stressful time, survived.

I am so glad for the break.

Now, it's time to get all their stuff graded that I have been avoiding.

Oh, joy