The One with the Bullet Points

I want to highlight a few moments from today in my post.

Oh, you like bullet points? Well here are a few:

• I had a great cause and effect teaching resource.
• I had a kid do nothing today.
• I had a bad report from specials.
• I had a fun moment being "sad."

Today we were talking about cause and effect during our read aloud. We had a brief review about cause and effect before hand because we've talked about it before. I always use Chris, my fiance, as an example when it comes to eating things. The kids were funny and said, "yeah, like when Chris ate your almonds and you had none left." Exactly, kids. Exactly. Anyways, we're reading Steven Kellogg books this week, so I opened up Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash. Read alouds are always more fun when they're interactive. That's why I had them use ANOTHER skill - double whammy -  which was inferencing. Each time we read they had to guess what caused the event that happened. For example, the book said, "The farmer ran into the bale of hay." "Why did he do that?" *insert inference from the class* "Because he was yelling at the pigs on our bus." It had the craziest situations in the book, so it was fun to read that together. Collective "OHHHHHs" or "WHAT?s" ensued. 

Moving on.

You read that second bullet point right. I had a kid do nothing. Now, I do have to be honest. He did get ONE thing done today. Wooooo. Handbells ringing. Maracas shaking. One. Thing. He wasn't even being defiant or argumentative about any of it. He simply wasn't getting anything done. I separated him from distractions, he laid on the floor. I had him work during indoor recess, he wrote a couple of words down. When he knows he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing, he shuts down and won't communicate. Therefore, I couldn't get any reason out of him as to why he wasn't working. In all seriousness, I think he just didn't feel like working today. He wanted to chat, or sit there and stare, or do. nothing. My other idea is that he did not have a good morning. I'm sure most people understand this by now, but the way the little ones start of their morning has a HUGE affect on how their day rolls out. Something exceptional must have happened this morning because he's never done this before. I called mom and haven't heard back yet, so the saga continues.

I like to pride myself in being able to communicate with my students and figure out how to help them be successful. If they cry, I want to know why. If they shut down, how can I bring them out. If they are angry, what made them upset. Today was a bust for me when it came to him. I hate that I couldn't reach that point with him and it turned into a product-less day.

Check and check.

The last two bullet points run together. I almost want to chuckle when thinking of them which may seem strange. Laugh? About a bad report from special areas? About having fun while being sad?

Here's the low-down. I drop my kids off at art, thinking nothing of it. They had been pretty good for me today, so I wasn't anticipating problems. When I come to pick them up, it is dead silent. I see 3 out of the 4 kids separated at a table are mine and the art teacher does not look happy. I put on my serious face and step into the room. She tells me that they were "awful" and how out of character it was for them. We play it up a bit, like the good actors we are, because that's what we do when we're talking about the kids in front of them. Teachers are a triple threat, guys. I walk them down the hall and they know how disappointed and sad I am about the situation. They didn't say one word. It was like nothing I'd seen before. Now, the part that I was peeved about was that this exact situation happened to the class right next to us last week. They heard about it in the hallway, we discussed it in the room, and we talked about how we were not going to do it.

That was soooo last week, Ms. Krastin. 

Apparently so! I put on my stern voice (not loud, stern) and told them there was no mystery object to find. Their only goal was to clean the room and I expected to see it clean when I walked in. I talked to my 3 kids in the hallway that had done well in art and I talked to my 3 kids that had to be separated from the group. The former received tickets for our drawing and the latter wrote apology notes to the art teacher. I turned and walked into the room and you could have heard a pen drop. They were so quiet and the room was spotless. 

We had a brief discussion on their behavior in art together. 

*On a side note, don't drag conversations like that out. They know what they've done and the more you talk either a) the worse they'll feel or b) the more bored they'll get at being berated and they'll do something to make you more frustrated.*

During our discussion, it really was more of me talking and their choral responses. This was one of those moments, which I explained to them, needed no excuses on their part. We had SEEN what happened when another class acted like this, we had HEARD what they did, and we DISCUSSED how we would not do something like that. Yet, here we were in the same place as last week's class. We talked about what they could do better next time and we assured that it would not come to this again. My own personal favorite quote of mine during my soapbox moment:

She used the adjective awful to describe our class. Awful.

That's right. Tying language arts concepts into a stern talking-to. Can I say...boom? Boom, baby!

Here's the fun part about me being "sad" about their behavior: they were perfect. I had no one try to talk while I was talking during our science lesson and they didn't even want to *test* the boundaries I had set forth. It was hilarious yet interesting how much I affected them. It really didn't take much to get that either. I was talking to a few of my coworkers after school and wondered how long I could ride out being disappointed! I mean, I wouldn't do that...not a lot...maybe just for one more day...like tomorrow morning and that's it...just through calendar time?

Even after everything, I feel strangely serene about today. I can't really explain why. Maybe I'm just not shocked by anything anymore or I might be getting the swing of things. Maybe it's because it's Teacher Appreciation Week, and I'm feeling pretty good about my career choice. Who knows, really.

Until next time.

Ms. K