No Electronics!

Why, oh, why do so many of my very young students have electronics that I still cannot afford?  In just the past two weeks, I have confiscated:

-five cell phones

-one PSP

-one iPod

-something that beeped that I didn't know what it was (a game, I think.  Not sure)

This irritates me.  I don't take the phones or stuff randomly.  They have to be doing something with it (in the case of the iPod and the PSP, they were playing games on them in my class) or it has to start making noise and interrupting the class.  The school policy that if your parents insist on you having the phone, you may (a lot of the parents feel it's a safety thing so they can call as they walk home) but you must keep it in your backpack at all times, shut off.

This means, the cell phone must remain in the backpack at all times.  

This does not mean in your pocket.

This not mean clipped to your belt.

This especially does not mean pulling it out to show everyone your cool phone.

For other electronic devices (iPods, cameras, PSPs, Nintendo DSes, etc) are not allowed.

For some reason, 6th graders have a hard time with this.  If they have it, they have to show it.  They want to show it off to each other.  The 8th graders are so much more subtle and sneaky, but not my students.  They'll have it on their desk, then act surprised when I confiscate it.

Each item that I take gets turned over to our grade level office, labelled carefully with the student's name, to await mom or dad coming to pick it up.

This really irritates the parents, generally, and I can't say I blame them.  They have to figure out a way to get to the school while the office is open (generally only while they're supposed to be at work, and not late enough for them to come after work) to get the item.

Sometimes they're irritated with their kid, which I don't blame them.  

Sometimes they blame me.  I am just following the policy that they all signed at the beginning of the year, plus it's not like I decided to text my friend in class.  If their child had shut their phone off or turned their phone on vibrate, it never would have come to me taking this.

Anyway.  I am tired of the whole electronics thing.  

And don't even get me started on hats and sunglasses.

Spring Break needs to be here now.

Gone so Long...

Well, it's been an insane amount of time since I have been blogging... and I feel rather bad. I have some reasons, of course, but still. I am considering whether or not to pull it down, or work on getting things posted. In the meantime, here are some of my reasons for not posting:

-This summer, with the two graduate level classes I was taking, just about wiped me out.

-This school year has made me inordinately angry. We lost our awesome, amazing AP and got someone who's just not as good... or nice.

-Our guidance counselor is inexperienced, so that made for a TERRIBLE start to the year.

-I am confused about how much I can post without hurting the children's privacy. I mean, I don't think my current approach of 'wash everything of a name' is anything that would be likely to cause anyone distress, but if a parent does complain, I don't want to be in trouble.

-As I started back to school this year, I promptly started another graduate level course. The good news on that is I finish the class in about two weeks, and then I am finished with my endorsement! Hooray!

So... I will likely begin posting some odd bits here and there, but we'll have to see about if I get back to posting regularly. I hope so, because I think it's a good outlet for me... but it's been difficult recently!

Next time, I will post about some of the craziness of starting school... it's such a strange time.

New School Year

My classroom is a disaster.

No other explanation. Pre-planning has been completely filled with meetings. Mostly informative, I guess, so not a waste, but some of them had no real point, and this irritates me. I have too much to do to sit there while you argue over the end of the year celebrations.

We can wait until after the "Winter Holiday" break. At least.

Anyway, I have a total of one border stapled up on my bulletin board, no posters, one calendar hung, three clocks, all with differing times, and I have my desk area rearranged from last year and also from the way the technology specialist set it up... I didn't like it.

Not only that, but I am pretty (okay, extremely) computer savvy, so people who I have helped, generally people I know, ask me to help them with their computers and things.

Then they tell their friends, and they ask me for help, but I don't even know them.

I have a problem saying no.

So, I have been spending my time doing other teacher's rooms.

I am tired, I am not ready, and I am frustrated.

At least tomorrow is another day.

A Special Child Introduced

I have been debating all year about posting entries about one of my students, because this child is so very distinct, it would make identification of her easy, and that's not my intent at all. I want it to all remain anonymous, and just be a commentary on the crazy things that people do these days with their children, and what kids are doing, since it is so very funny a lot of the time.


So I didn't write any of the numerous, insane things that happened. And trust me, there are plenty. I don't think I'll have another student like this one, no matter how long I remain teaching.


But as the year is over, and I am gearing up for a fresh crop of kiddos, I feel the need to share a few of the craziest stories about this student, as I just can't hold it in anymore. As countless people have said, as I mention the latest thing she did, "I really don't know how you stood it."


I don't either.


For ease in storytelling, I will give this student a name, which of course isn't the real one. We'll call her Sarah.


Now, Sarah was on another team at my school, but after about 1 month was moved to our team, as we were "a better environment for this particular student." This translates to the other team was full of new teachers and teachers who complain if they have any student that isn't perfect, and so they moved her to our team, since they couldn't handle her.


We had been warned about her; we had a whole special meeting about her. She was placed in my homeroom and in my class for language arts. The first day she arrived, she sat on my floor and told me she didn't want to do the work. This was a little surprising, as I do work with 12-year-olds, and generally it takes them awhile to be comfortable enough to say things like that.


So I said that I was sorry to hear that, but she needed to do it anyway. She promptly threw a fit, and laid down on the floor and kicked her feet, and started screaming.


This obviously shocked me. (and the other students).


No matter how they had talked about her being "special" in the meeting, and how we would have to work with her carefully, I wasn't prepared for a temper tantrum that would make a 2-year-old proud.


I attempted to get her off the floor, and eventually managed to get her in a desk, with her work in front of her. When I stopped by to check on her later, she was playing with a piece of plastic. I asked what it was, and she ignored me, so I asked her what she was doing. Then she told me what it was.


She said, "Oh, this? This is just a piece of plastic. But it's a special piece of plastic. It's part of a bomb that I am going to build to blow you up."


Let me tell you, I was floored.

After school that day, I went to my administrator's office for advice. Now, I do love my administrator, but she has better things to do than worry about this child, so I was basically just told to make do, deal with it, and ignore the threats.

I then went to several other people at my school, and I was told just to ignore it, she didn't mean it.

I was angry about it then, and I still am. Whether or not she meant it, she said it. It's not safe to have hear around other students when she is making threats like that. It's just not. If she were of low intelligence, maybe, but she has an extremely high IQ, past Giftedness even, and she could easily figure out how to make a bomb.

But I had to go back and just do my best. Throughout many other threats to me, my co-teacher, and the other teachers on my team, we were told just to have a little compassion for this student, who is going through so much.

What about me? What about the other students? I kept trying to get them to see that if something did happen, and she hurt other students, we would be in very deep trouble, since she was threatening them!

I kept a log of everything she did, so that if anything did happen, I had a list of things leading up to the event.

Eventually I had enough, and wrote a referral for a threat to me and one of the other students. Nothing really happened, just one day in ISS, but it made it so that she was aware it was not okay to make threats anymore, and she mostly stopped. But she still did things like throwing herself on the floor, screaming, telling the other kids they were stupid, yelling out during tests or when was reading out loud, etc.

I really do not know how I made it.

Why Are you Talking To Yourself??

I have one student who is seriously unbelievable. Just completely unbelievable.

We have had 3 parent conferences, because he's failing everything.

None have worked.

He doesn't do anything. The classwork everyone else is doing, even the fun activities, the homework, TESTS, he doesn't do any of them.

But the worst of it is, he talks. Pretty constantly. This is not that unusual, of course, but what makes this child unusual is that when I moved him to the seat by my door, the one that has no one even close to it, he still talks. No one is listening, no one can even really hear him, but he still talks. I ask him if he's talking to the wall, and he says yes. (There is nothing mentally wrong with him to cause this, either).

I really think that there's something very wrong with him, to have such a deep-seated need for attention that he must continue to talk after being corrected, and even when there is no one listening.

We have referred him to the counselor, to make sure there wasn't anything going on to cause this, and nothing was discovered.

But whether or not there is something going on, in the meantime, it's very, very annoying.

I mean, who talks to a wall?

Apology?

We had an incident on the field trip this year that just amazed me.


After spending an entire day talking about what is okay and what is expected, the day should have gone easily, and we should have all just had a blast.


Instead, several girls took it into their heads to separate from their group (which they had not wanted to be in the first place, but since the group they really wanted to be in already had 6, it wasn't an option) and join the group they originally asked for. Since we had lots of parent chaperones, plus the teacher group, the largest group of kids was 6, but most had 2-4.


After the chaperone who 'lost' the girls looked everywhere for them for an hour or so, she called the teachers, a little panicky.


Eventually, we tracked them all down and got it sorted out, though it was accompanied by many tears.


The girls said it was an accident, so we brought them all into lunch detention to discuss the situation.

After we heard their explanations (all different of course), we then tasked them with writing a letter explaining and apologizing, so that we could decide what their consequence would be.


Three of the girls did it, and mostly their stories made sense, and they all said they were very sorry.


One girl, however, was different. Instead of writing what happened and how she's sorry, she yelled at the teachers.


From the letter (titled, "Apoligy Letter"), exactly as she wrote it:


"I have now realized that what I have done was wrong. From now on whenever I go on Field Trips I will never go off with another chaperon, I have learned from my mistakes! It's mainly not my fault though....."


She continues and explains what she things happened, though she apparently wasn't too sure and said different things in various places.


Remember, she had wanted to be in a different, already-full group. She denies this, however:


"Now dont get my wrong I DID like my group for the field Trip I wasnt complaning, but If I'm being honest in this letter than I will say this... When Ms. Language Arts Lady said that I was in ______'s group, I didnt like it but than I realizad that I should give her a chance."


That's sounds good, right? Well, it gets better. Apparently objecting to us remembering that she was upset when we formed her group, she goes on to say:


"So I did. And guess what! I was fine with my group!!! I didnt leave the group cause I didn't like who was in it, I left because I had permission! Okay?!! Now listen remember when me (and the other students who also switched groups without permission) had lunch detention? Well and you teachers occused me of not caring that I was in trouble well..... NEWS FLASH! I do care not If I didnt care then I wouldnt be writing this!"

I really don't understand why she was trying to get out of a punishment by yelling at the people she has annoyed... During the lunch detention, the other girls tried to explain what happened, and sniffed little tears, etc. She sat and positively smirked, smiled, grinned, and laughed, completely not caring as she had already gotten her way, and since she rarely comes to school, she knew she just would avoid the remainder of her punishment.

"oh also thanks For making me fell EXTRA Sad I mean I already fell bad as it is. When you teachers were talking to me in lunch detention I know that I didnt look like I cared but trust me I care a lot!!!! also I realized I could have got stolen! and I would want that to happen so....." (about 1,000 more periods)

Then she added:

"I'm SORRY" covering the whole last page.

Wow... We really didn't know how to take this. I know she was upset, but an apology letter should contain an apology, and most definitely not a tirade.

So the other girls got one more day of lunch detention for disobeying and putting themselves into danger, let alone scaring the chaperone to death.

She got two more days... one for the same, one for the attitude.

Heaven help the 7th grade teachers.

Projects

Sometimes I really dislike doing projects.

The kids did a really nice job this year with the projects. I got some amazing things, that showed the really thought about it, worked, and then were able to explain why they did what they did.

We got cakes, chicken dishes, salads, muffins, cupcakes, and more food items. We got a stage for the actresses one of the kids made out of dolls, a castle, a prairie type wagon.

But the problem with these projects is that the never, ever get taken home.

EVER.

The projects were presented about three weeks ago. Most of the items are here.

I really wish they'd take their stuff home.

A Bad Day

Remember when I mentioned Meet Your Teacher? It's the thing at the beginning of the year that allows the parents and kids to look at their teacher, follow their schedule and get a feel for where the classrooms are located, and so on.

It's the week before school starts. So we haven't seen gotten a roster yet, we don't know the names of any of our kids, we're still setting up the classroom, trying to get copies made, posters hung, and myriad other things that demands attention before school can begin.

Well, we recently had a parent conference with a parent, who screamed at me, and said she had told me that if I had ever had a problem with her child, that I was supposed to immediately pick up the phone and call her, and she would take care of the problem and make sure it didn't happen. That she had problems with her child last year, since midway through the year no work was completed.

I said sure, I could do that. So did the other teachers, back then at Meet Your Teacher. You know, the one that happened before school started. So I didn't know her, or her child, or even their names.

Now, if I was a parent, and I knew that my child had a habit like that, I would have let school get started, then called the teacher and had a little chat about what my child likes to do, and ask if the teacher could keep their eyes peeled for any indication it was happening, so that I could deal with it immediately.

But that is apparently too hard to do. It's much easier to wait until there is about 1 month left in the school year, make a conference, and scream at each of the teachers in turn about how you were not notified that you child was failing.

When it was mentioned that the report cards and progress reports serve as a notification, we were told that she had not "seen any f*** report cards." (not as bad as it could have been; it wasn't the actual word, but it was a pretty vulgar substitution anyway, and I must say it offended me.)

I'm really sorry, and maybe I could have said something to mollify her, but at this point, I shut down. I can't handle being screamed at, I really cannot. I mean, beyond the simple fact it's not polite, she has no right to speak to me in such a manner. I am not her child, I am not her servant. I am a professional, who has a real job, who went to school and worked hard for my degree, so that I could teach these children as I love to do. How dare she scream at me?

This really upset me, and I am still upset. I am not sure what she was hoping to get out of this, but I can assure you I am officially not committed to helping her figure out a solution.

This might be childish on my part, but I'm sorry, and I cannot help it. Maybe in 20 years time I will be more philosophical about it all, but not yet.

Add to the horror of getting yelled at by someone I don't know, we were not supposed to be alone with this parent, as administration has had previous contact with her, and she has been a little aggressive and belligerent. So, we were supposed to have an administrator and the guidance counselor, neither of whom came. I think someone outside of the situation would have helped immensely, as they could have said calming things and explained how it is not acceptable to speak to us like that, and ways to resolve the issue.

Instead, we have no resolution. The parent says that it's our fault her child is failing, because if we had just called, just once, it would have changed instantly.

We did try to explain that we sent home lots of things with her child, explaining she has received a low grade on something, or she wasn't doing something, or sending her tests home to be signed. When we pulled the child's file, it was stuff full of things from one class, then nothing from the other classes. When we showed her that her own signature was on the tests, she claims only one of them, and calmly tells us the rest are forged, and that her child is really good at forging.

Then, she tells us, that's not the problem, though. The forging wouldn't be happening if her child knew that she had received a phone call from the school.

Well, we're sorry, but we did not remember that you had talked to us, before we knew your child's name. So we didn't call, because, and this is the most annoying part, her child is in all advanced classes. So, we should not have to check up on her constantly, as she is in advanced classes. It's the same thing as how we do not have tutoring for the child, since they are in advanced classes, and if they cannot keep up, they need to not be in advanced.

Anyway. It was a very bad day, and I felt sad and snappish the remainder of the of the day. I don't blame the kids for their parents, since they cannot help it, but it's still hard to not see the mom when you look at the kid.

So, anyway. Parents need to remember that the vast majority of teachers really want whatever is best for your child, and if you work with them, and be polite and patient, they are thrilled to help you. I love my super-involved parents. They make my life much easier.

So. Just thought I'd share one of the very very negative things about teaching.

But I still love doing it.

Not sure why sometimes, but I do.

Confessions of Guilty Students, Part One

Today we were working on "dry erase boards." (These are boards that I made myself, as I am way too cheap to buy a board for each student. I took a clipboard, a sheet of purple paper, and a page protector, and made my own. They really work surprisingly well. Each kid gets one, and an eraser and a dry erase marker, and we check our understanding with that. For instance, I say, "Okay, what did you get for number 1?" and they all write their answer and hold it up. If most of them got it correct, we move on. Otherwise, we go over it. This was a much more exciting way to review for our state's standardized test).

This has a tendency to make the kids very silly and loud, but as long as they're focused, and going along with me, I don't really care. Since we do have to spend crazy amounts of time reviewing for the test, I would rather make it as painless as possible.

And, honestly, it's much easier for me, since they are not whining nearly as much as they did last year.

Anyway, we were using them, and it was working beautifully. I had collected all of the boards, and I was wiping them all of to put away. I noticed that one of my brand-new, used by only two classes, boards had graffiti on it!

I was instantly very, very annoyed.

If you have one thing with writing on it, the kids assume it's all right, and very soon all the boards will be disgusting.

I was more irritated because this was my advanced class, and my regular kids had used them the day before and I did not have that problem.

I started up with my lecture about how I was annoyed, and how someone had ruined my brand-new things, and how I had bought them myself, to make it better for them to learn, and I had just gotten started, when I asked who had done it. The kids were looking really nervous. I don't generally have to fuss at them often, and I was truly upset.

I got all set to continue my lecture until someone fessed up. I was going to tell them that I knew was one of them, as it was not there yesterday and they were the only ones who had used them today.

Then one tiny, timid hand went up.

I went, "AHHHHHH! Why did you do that?! My stuff? Why did you write on my stuff, child?"

She just looked really, really sad.

I told her to say after class. The the rest of the class remained looking nervous, but not as nervous as our little culprit.

After I dismissed everyone and I was alone with her, I interrogated her. After I was through, I had found out that she had thought it would erase. She didn't think it would be permanent.

I sighed at her.

Then I told her how proud I was of her for immediately confessing that she was the one who had done it, and I knew it wasn't easy to do. I also told her I was still pretty disappointed she would ruin something of mine that was brand new. I reminded her I was proud she confessed. But disappointed.

So I told her I was just tired, and a little sad. She was very contrite that she had caused it, and then went to her next class.

You can bet, however, I warned the next class within an inch of their lives.

One smiley face I'll except.

Never two.

No Stupid Questions, Part 2

Once again, I stopped to reflect on the idea of there being no stupid questions, except maybe the one you didn't ask.

If you ask me, that person just doesn't hang around with 6th graders.

Some gems I have recently heard:

"Who had the highest grade on our team?" - Why on earth would I remember that?

"Can I use my extra credit on the standardized test?" - Um... no. But thanks for thinking that my classroom stuff is so important as to affect the huge standardized test we do every year. I think.

"Does the word 'reign' mean the same as the word 'rain'?" - This was mere seconds after they had just answered (correctly, mind you) my question about the meaning of the word.

"Do I have to read this book?" - As they were signing up for their book for the project. Um, I guess you don't have to read it. But I also don't have to give you a grade for what you are not going to do.

"What did he say?" - Interrupting me to ask what another student said, who was already interrupting me to talk across the room.

"Can I have my cell phone back?" - This after one of the other student's phone rang in my class, because he had called him from my class, two rows over. Um, no, you cannot have your phone back. You'll get it eventually. When I have gotten over being mad. Eventually.

"Do I have to use a pencil?" - After I said, for the fourth or fifth time, you must use a pencil on this test.

"Am I really going to fail?" - This from a child who has not done one single homework assignment this year, and by year I mean this school year, not calendar year, and who fails every test. Um... yes. I am afraid you'll fail, unless you actually do something.

Why do they ask such ridiculous things?

Oh, well. At least they keep me on my toes.

Where are Your Parents?

Why is that I see my students wandering the streets randomly on weeknights or weekends?

There is a large shopping center relatively close to where I live, and I have noticed that entire herds of middle schoolers (and high schoolers) roam there, every weekend at least, but most weeknights, too.

So much so that they have increased security, and the police department has large presence there.

Why on earth would you allow your 11- and 12-year-old wander, unsupervised? How on earth could you justify it? It's simply not safe.

We have all seen the news, about kids snatched and not returned. Why make it easy for them, and release your child in a contained place, and make it like shooting fish in a barrel?
It really disappoints me.

I mean, I was shopping the other day, and I felt like a movie star as I was walking around with my friends, hearing my name shrieked in excitement, followed by kids chasing me down and hugging me.

On the one hand, it was nice they wanted to see me that badly. On the other, I ask, always without fail, where is your mother?

Oh, she's at home.

Oh, I say. What is there to say to that?

Remember, parents, just because your kid says, "But all the other kids are doing it!" doesn't make it true.

And even if it is true, you don't have to listen. Keep your child safe!

Or go with them. It'll keep them safe, even if they don't like it.

Keep your kids at home!

Seating Chart Woes

The perfect seating chart is elusive. It's hard to find the ideal spot for each kid, because some kids need to be in front, because of seeing difficulties. Then there the kids who have IEPs, which stands for Individual Education Plans (for various learning disabilities or differences), and it requires that they receive "preferential seating," which basically means that they need to be up front. I even have some kids with hearing issues, so they need to be pretty close, too.

But mostly, it's hard to do because you must separate all friends, as far apart as possible, as well as everyone who might someday become friends, usually due to a badly designed seating chart.

People who only remember school as a student might think that this is mean, since that is how they always took seating charts themselves, but teachers understand perfectly the art of making a good seating chart.

Actually, anyone in a classroom trying to get 30 kids to do something will immediately understand this phenomenon. It really is absolutely amazing how different your class can be if you have a bad seating chart versus a good seating chart.

Quite a bit of time is spent by teachers trying to get their students to stop talking to their neighbors and pay attention, or do their work, or copy the notes. This time can be almost (not quite, because they still are kids, and they can't be perfect, nor do I even want them to be) eliminated if you manage to find that perfect arrangement of desks and kids.

Of course, even the best seating chart doesn't last forever. You finally figure out all sets of friends in your class, and design the chart carefully around that, remembering to completely surrounding the extreme talkers with "pockets of silence," or kids who will not talk to anyone except their own friends (who are, blessedly, in another of my classes, or better yet, another team), or kids who are very shy, or kids who are enemies, or kids who are respectful and won't talk inappropriately.

You remember that child A hates child B, but their hate is volatile, and apt to go off in class unexpectedly.

You remember that the 1st 9 weeks, you had child F and child I next to each other, and they passed notes, even though they never actually talked, before or since the chart was changed.

But still. It doesn't last forever, since kids are resilient. They make new friends. So, after the entire 9 weeks, most kids have become comfortable, and are back at the talking game, so it's time to spice things up again and move them around, so they're not quite as comfortable, and they'll get back to the task at hand (learning), instead of what they have recently begun doing (socializing).

So every single 9 weeks they get new seats. They begin whining about 3 weeks before the grading period is over, saying they want new seats now, and they are tired of sitting here; whine, whine. Students who had no trouble days ago suddenly cannot see the board, the front of the classroom, or even you standing there, trying to get their attention.

"But Ms. Language Arts Lady! I left my glasses at home, so I didn't seeeeeee the homework written on the board!" (To which I respond, "Well, since I told you to write it in your planner as I was assigning it, and I have reminded you every day this week it was due, you didn't need to see it." They have no response to that.)

Finally, I spend the hours that it takes and redo the chart, which I then immediately implement, because the dumb things took me so long to do.

The second I say, "Pick up all your stuff and stand by the door," the whining begins again, but this time, they love their current seats, and they don't want to change, please, please, they'll be good, they promise.

12-year-olds are so tiresome sometimes!

I get them all seated in their new seats, amidst groans, moans, and eye-rolls, and finally get them settled.

They glance around, seeing how far away their friends are from their currently location. They figure out how far away from my desk they are, and then from where I generally stand to teach, and from the door. They realize (and announce at the top of their lungs) that I have arranged them boy-girl-boy. They remember (after remind them) they were boy-girl-boy (or maybe girl-boy-girl).

They analyze the kids on either side, searching for allies.

They glance nervously at me, since I am giving them all warning glances.

Honestly, I do enjoying moving them, because I can generally count on at least 1 full week of blessed silence, or at least quiet. It's really amazing. They have to get comfortable again before they'll start their chatting.

Or maybe it's just they use up all their noise in one burst when I move them, in complaint and general grumbling.

Maybe I should move them every week.

Maybe not.

Why Do They Lie?

We have been slammed recently on our team (and I think our whole school) with parent conferences, since report cards have gone home recently, and since this time, there was a little letter attached explaining the retention/promotion policy, so parents became aware of just how serious those Fs in math, language arts, social studies, and science truly are.

Something we have noticed about our kids in these conferences is that they lie. They will stare you in the face and lie to their parents and to you. Then, they will look ashamed and sob.

Why do they do that? They know we are right there listening to them and we will bust them. For example, one student told his mother that he always does his homework in class, every day, so that's why he doesn't ever have homework.

Now, this is not true. In all of the classes on my team, we simply do not do homework in class, because we're busy doing classwork. It is a very, very rare occasion that allows them to even start their homework in class, let alone finish it. In my class, we perhaps begin homework in class once a month.

So of course, all of his teachers explained that this was not true, and he just doesn't ever do his homework, showing her the print out of his grades, which show he hasn't done any homework this 9 weeks.

Why would they do that? It incenses their parent, who is sitting right there, having to listen to people telling them their child isn't doing what they are supposed to. They are already annoyed, then to be confronted by their child lying? It embarrasses them, and makes for embarrassing scenes for us, the teachers, as the parent struggles with their anger and frustration at their child, and as the kid sobs.

Then, why do they lie when you sat and watched them do something? For instance, one of my troublemaking boys has recently been getting in quite a bit of trouble with all of his teachers.

His parents have been up to the school multiple times, the teachers call home weekly, we write notes in his planner every day, and more, but he still is struggling with his behavior.

He was sitting in class after he finished a test, and he was supposed to be reading his book. Instead, he had pulled out a toy and was playing with it.

In my class.

In the front row, during a test (so I am watching to make sure no one is talking or cheating), seconds after I had told him to read his book.

Then, after I took it away, he argued with me for 15 minutes about it. I finally tired of it, and told him to go and sit down, so he sat and pouted for the rest of class. After class, he came over to try to sweet talk me, to try to get it back.

I told him that he would have to have a good couple of days in a row to earn it back, which is my normal policy. Most kids are aware of their item in my possession, hanging over their head, and they get it back quickly.

Instead of accepting this and leaving, he starts to argue. Again.

He tells me that he was, "Just taking it out of my pocket to put something else away."

Now, I know this is a lie, since I watched him pull it out and play with it for awhile. I told him this, and how I had watched him play with it, and he said, "No, I was putting something away!"

I told him that he needed to leave now (since class was over and my other kids were trying to come in, but were hovering confusedly in the doorway, not sure if they could come in or not).

He starts shrieking about how it is his and he wasn't doing anything and it wasn't fair.

I was finished.

I wasn't going to sit and be yelled at by a child who had flat out lied to me about a dumb toy that shouldn't have been at school in the first place.

Later, at his parent conference, I told his parents about the incident, and his dad told me to just throw the toy away.

I love when parents are supportive. It makes me feel better about the struggles I have with their kids.

But I still don't understand why the kids lie to me. Or to their parents.

Why?

Little Details

It's the little things that make up a whole day. Each little minute going by, moving into the next minute, adding up to a whole period, a whole day, a whole week.

Some of the the little minutes I have had in my classroom recently:

-One of the kids was answering a question about what a female seahorse does with her eggs. She wrote, "She takes her eggs and gives them to her husband to hold for about 2 weeks. Once they are ready, he lets them go back to his wife."

-One of my boys decided that the mouse's name was too difficult and started calling her "Sally." Now his whole class period calls her Sally.

-Upon receiving an A on a test, one of my girls came over to ask me if it was a mistake. She was serious! (How heartbreaking is that? She says she has never gotten an A in language arts. I told her I was so proud!)

-The boys trying, for the 9th time, to make it in the trash can in a game of improvised basketball. Me, asking them to stop, also for the 9th time, starting to sound irritated.

-The computer completely and totally crashing as I was trying to show the kids something on the Internet. Leaving them to stare at me, startled, then gleefully begin talking.

-Me forgetting to tune into the morning announcements for two days in a row. (It's not like it's not every morning, at the same time, or anything.)

-Letting the children go 20 minutes early for lunch because I was so very confused about the time, what day it was, what period it was, and having them brought back by my 6th grade administrator. (Whoops).

-My student assistant staring at me like I am insane as I teach. (I really don't like this. It feels a little strange, her staring at me the whole time. Doesn't she have homework??)

-Having a child have a complete breakdown in the media center, complete with screaming, crying, and stomping feet. (By screaming, I mean, SCREAMING, not just yelling). He wasn't allowed to check out a book, since he forgot his ID that day. (The look on the media clerk's face was pretty funny, though. She wasn't expecting that from a 12-year-old.)

-One of my students asks for his grade every day. Rain or shine. Even when he just saw his grade online, before he left home. That morning. When nothing could have possibly changed.

Right now, it's a tiresome time for teachers. After the holiday break, we have the push to the standardized tests. The clock is ticking, the kids are feeling it and are squirrely, and the teachers are desperately trying to get it all in.

So, I am glad for the little moments right now... it keeps me from focusing on the bigger picture and going crazy!

(By the way, if anyone is interested in hearing more about anything in particular, feel free to leave it in my comments section, and I'll see if I can accommodate you... Thanks!)

Wow... Just Wow.

This is a little different from my normal postings. I normally stick to just what goes on in the classroom, but it's relevant to my blog, and also highly annoying (at least to me) so I had to mention it.

I was wandering around the Internet today, and I noticed something very interesting... Someone was sending traffic to my blog! Wow, I thought, how kind. The nice person saw something in my blog and linked to me.

Then I noticed how they were describing me. They linked to one of my posts about Open House, where I was mentioning I was working really hard to get my desk cleaned off. I tossed out the overused, but still humorous (in my opinion), phrase about a clean desk being a sign of a diseased mind.

They said that this was just a sign of someone who doesn't "want to bother with coming up with a system for taking control of their environment."

As I mentioned above... Wow... just wow. That someone could read just that sentence and decide they know everything about me... They obviously didn't read the rest of my post, because I go on to say how I am going to really strive to keep it clean, and how I, strangely, put more emphasis on working with my students rather than being a neat freak.

They obviously didn't know about my library, (in which I have over 1,000 books that I have purchased with my own money to allow the kids to check them out, since I think reading is really important) which has a great system to allow them to check it out without me having to drop what I'm doing and go over to get a library sheet. It's super-organized, and countless teachers have come in my room just to see the library and have copied my idea.

And something else that really got me... the next thing they wrote was, "I notice that those people who have cluttered desks often end up being the ones who are late to submit their grades or who don’t respond to ARD input forms or whatever."

That really burns me up! I have never, not even once submitted my grades late, even though in our county we had a horrible gradebook program which routinely lost grades and would not work so we couldn't input grades. I also am not late in submitting any of the thousands of paperwork that needs submitting.

(I do miss meetings, but that's a different story. I can't, for some reason, remember to attend meetings. I have alarms set on my computer now, to remind me, so I will not miss them. See? I am working on improving myself.)

Now, you might be thinking I am annoyed because it's true. I have carefully thought about it, too, to make sure that's not it... but it's not! I am annoyed that this person linked to me in a negative way, using me as a negative example, when I am pretty sure they did not look at any of my other posts to see if I am an effective teacher. Because honestly, still in my own opinion, of course, I think what matters most is that I am an effective teacher.

Besides, my desk drawers are currently very clean and organized. I have what I need within reach of when I'm sitting. The top of my desk is not pristine right now, but grades are due this week, and I am currently in the process of inputting grades, so all of that is all over my desk. Before I started putting in grades, it was still clean!

I don't spend a lot of time at my desk. I am up, or in my chair in the front of the room, working individually with the kids. When my desk is cluttered, it's not a nice, calm place to work, but I don't really do work there, even when it is cleaned off. I do most of my actual grading of papers at home, not at school, because I don't find the time to do it at school. During the day, there are a million other things to do, like attend meetings (which I have not even missed one this year... yet...) and do lesson plans, and all those endless things that must happen right then, or dire consequences will befall us all.

Suffice to say, this really disturbed me. Oh, well. I can't really hold a grudge, I guess. I need to move on. I guess I should say at least people are coming to my blog because of it.

But it still wasn't very nice.