“Today Was One of Those Days!” Woosah!

Today was one of those days!  I had to take a deep breath, and  exhale, “Woosah.” (For those who don’t know, I got that from the movie  “Bad Boys” with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.)  It works for me, because it stops me from saying something I have no business saying to someone else’s child!  My students were so crazy today with the level of “it’s all about me”.   All the “this is what I want to do, and who cares  what you say!” No, they didn’t actually say those words, but the body language, attitude, lips poked out, made me stop during Math.

I said,” I have to stop for a Public Service announcement.”  This is not meant for all of you, as a matter of fact, it’s not meant for most of you.” Seriously.  And yes, I know, I was not using my class time wisely, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.  I proceeded to explain to them that when they get home, they can Tweet, Facebook, text, or call each other and vent about me all they want, but while they were sitting  in our classroom, they would keep their negative  attitudes to themselves, especially since it was intefering with me teaching and them learning!”  Yes, they took me there!  I didn’t have any other problems for the remainder of the day, thank goodness!

Sometimes, they do that to you. I love them all, but sometimes I just want to shake them, and let them know, that I  have too many bodies in the room to cater to each and every one of their idiosyncrasies. Especially when it’s more than two or three of them at a time. Well, they’re 5th graders, and I know puberty is rearing its ugly head, and the hormones are beating each other up inside those little bodies.  So, I’ll just continue to take a deep breath, inhale, extend my arms to the sky, arm down, and exhale, “Woosah!”:)

Advertisement

Managing the Unmanageable!

She walked in the classroom yesterday and proceeded to walk from her desk, to her locker, to the recycling box by my desk with her coat on and her book bag on her back. sneaking glances at me now and then.  Flashback to the day before, when she proceeded to take everything out and pile it on her desk.  When I asked her what she was doing she said, “I’m leaving!”  I said, “Where are you going?”  She said, “I don’t know, but I’m getting out of here!” I walked away, I have learned not to have battles with this child. As she left the room, I called the office, and the guidance counselor intercepted her in the hallway. She bullies and harasses students in the room, and when she is disciplined, she becomes extremely defensive.  The head starts swinging on the neck, the eyes start rolling, and the yelling begins, “You are always picking on me!”   I don’t have many  discipline problems in my classroom.  The ones I do have, I handle, they take a little timeout, or we have a quiet talk in the hallway, and all is well again.  But this child!  Yesterday’s episode began when I found out that she had written “bich”(sic) on the desktop of one of the laptops and I told her that she lost her laptop privileges. And yes, she has seen the counselor, I have spoken to her parents, I have done the “pull her out away from the other students and talk to her alone” thing,  given her my expectations, written her up, what else is there? I can not allow her to behave any way she wants, there are boundaries and she has to adhere to them. Back to the morning, we started Morning Meeting, at that point,  I asked her to remove her coat and bag.  She stopped,  looked at me. raised her hand(you know, the “talk to the hand” move), and said, “I’m done with you!”  and stormed out.  There was a collective gasp from the circle, what a way to start Morning Meeting, huh?  I  called the office,and she was not allowed back in my room the remainder of the day.  The sad part is, this is a student who needs to be in my room, every hour of the day!  When you send her to another room, she is a model student.  I’m stumped, the only way this child will behave is if I let her do what she wants, little or no work, talk, and bully other students, that’s just not the way my classroom rolls, there has to be another way to manage the unmanageable.