The "New Kid"

I will admit that when I went into school this morning, the last thing I expected was a new student. But in he came while I was preparing the classroom for the learning activities today. His mother accompanied him, informing me that her son had moved schools several times now, & that he was particularly sensitive. She also mentioned that he was going through "puberty." (I put that in quotation marks because I'm not exactly sure how a 10-year-old is already experiencing that, but I just let it go.)
When he went to another classroom this afternoon, based on his English language-speaking level, he ended up next-door to me. Apparently his phone rang during that class, & he walked out of the teacher's classroom to answer it. When she came over & vented to me about the situation, I found it strange that he had done so. When school was over, he had to walk by my classroom, so I stopped him & asked why he'd answered the phone in the middle of class. He responded that it had been his mother, so he answered it. While I did not want to really rebuke him when that was his response, I still gently reminded him that cellphones are not permitted during school hours & he would need to check it into the office tomorrow. (What I was really wondering is why that woman called him when she knew he was in class. But I'll save that conversation for a later date.)
One of my students is becoming increasingly more like a student I had last year, in the tantrum-throwing sense. She threw her book on the floor today during the whole class reading, & pulled her hood up over her head. When I went to talk to her, she burst into tears & refused to take her hood off, at which point I asked her to go sign her card for not following directions. That only infuriated her, to the point that I had to send her next-door to write a letter home minutes later; many of her classmates were distracted & unable to focus & do their work.
Then one kid slept through nearly every lesson this morning. I made everyone do jumping jacks & Yoga after recess though, & felt like that might cure him. Surely it did not. He put his head back down on his hands, at which point I got very frustrated with him & told him that he's surely going to fall asleep if he keeps putting his head down. I was trying to be careful in the way I spoke to him though, because he wrote some pretty suicidal lyrics on the back of his self-evaluation sheet last Friday & I'm worried about him. What can you do?
I honestly wonder what I need to do for some of these kids who are emotionally unstable; it concerns me for them as well as their classmates (because it requires my attention & effort every time something happens.)

Drama drama.....fo yo MAMA!

I don't know where to begin! Between the incidents yesterday & today, I think I'm about ready to pull my hair out! I do have to chuckle at yesterday's incident, however much it may have hurt one student's feelings though. He told me someone special in his life had died & that another kid in the class was mocking him & calling him a "crybaby." I approached the bully student & began lecturing him for teasing another student about such a loss, when he himself had lost his father last year. When I called "the victim" over, however, I was remiss to discover that it was his crab (& not his "gramps") who had died. While I still made the bully apologize, I felt ridiculous for how I handled the situation in that moment.

Today at recess was also quite comical, though it involved several people crying & getting emotionally involved more than I thought was possible for 4th graders.
Apparently one student taunted another student that he was going to be the "new boyfriend" of this little girl, to another girl who is a friend to both of them. When that student taunted him, the "boyfriend" lost his temper & pushed this guy into a fence, & started chasing at him, yelling at him about how that was his girl. When I spoke to him in class, I set him straight & told him he can't even have a real girlfriend at this age, to which he replied, "Well, I've taken her to McDonald's." (Wow! Classy date right there.) I reassured him that the time would come when he could drive & take girls out & date them, but that 4th grade wasn't that time, & certainly not ideal for getting all wound up over either.

"Keep Your Butt to Yourself!"

SO today started off in a very unorthodox manner; a student came in & announced that a 3rd grader had threatened to kill her after school today.  When I inquired as to what was said, I realized the girl who threatened already had a history with her. This girl has been making derogatory comments about my student's mom, and my student started making them right back.  My student also petitioned this girl to share her friend (since she insists that Aaliyah has taken control of her friend.) I walked them both down to the office where the assistant principal admitted she was on her way to get the 3rd grade girl out of class anyway, because she has been bullying other girls (calling them “whores” and such. That was not a word I knew in 3^rd grade!)  They both were sentenced to a social skills class with the assistant principal after-school on Friday; that sounds interesting…..I wonder what those are actually like. At least my students were reading quietly at the back table, under my team member’s supervision, when I returned.  

Most of the rest of the day passed without incident, with an occasional interruption and blurt-outs. I did end up moving two students because one girl would not stop talking during independent work time for math, so I changed her seat with a girl in the front.  She who had been sitting in the front, is a “know-it-all” who rarely raises her hand to make a comment, was the perfect candidate to move back there, because now she will have to raise her hand to get my attention from all the way back there.

One of my most undisciplined students this year, shoved a crayon in the pencil sharpener near the end of the day when the kids were working on their soil profiles in their science journals, & that kind of threw me over the edge.

I kept another student after school to discuss his behavior with him. He was constantly talking all morning when he should have been working, and then when the kids lined up to get colored pencils, he was pushing his butt and backside into another girl in the classroom insisting that she started it while they were waiting in line. When I asked them to sign their cards, I told them they had to put “could not keep butt to self” & that we would be showing their discipline cards to their parents at parent-teacher conferences next month, so I hoped they were sufficiently humiliated at that point. I'm such a kind teacher! ;)

Highlights of a School Day

Today had a lot of funny aspects to it; I have to mention just a few. I started one student on a behavior contract; he is quite the class clown (or so he thinks), & he is rarely on-task, normally out of his seat & bothering other classmates. He really made me chuckle during the counselor's visit to the class today though, because when she was mentioning tolerance & brought up race (specifically the term) "Latino," this clown student (who is Mexican), proceeded to ask what a Latino was......as if it were some foreign species.
During that same conversation, another student mentioned holding another student in a "headlock" as the primary bullying threat at our school .........which I was unaware of, apparently.
Several students got confused on their spelling homework, & when they inserted the word student instead of season the context made me laugh; "Autumn is my favorite student." That was just purely ironic, when in fact  that student has caused me some grief this year already (mentioned in prior entries with ADHD) and may appear to be my favorite student since she is requiring a lot of my time, when in fact I am just gritting my teeth and trying to maintain patience with her. It's funny how students interpret things sometimes. 

ADHD x3

I think one of THE biggest challenges for an educator is that blasted disease-Attention Deficit HYPERactivity Disorder. ....especially when untreated! I had a student who didn't take her meds most of last week in the morning & made things particularly difficult. On top of that, I got a new student, who I found out has ADHD as well, & his mom/auntie forgot his meds that morning & had to come back & give them to him later on in the day; what an adventure!
But the girl student who didn't take her medication was really bouncing off the walls; every time I went to help other students around the room, she was constantly at my elbow and butting into other students' business, asking if I had "fairy books" for her to read, complaining about how hungry she was, & also informing me at the same time that she was gnawing on pencils & erasers. Wow! Luckily, the school counselor loaned me some snacks for her, & she made it until lunch....when I say "made it," I mean she knocked her plant off the desk entirely, finished a task here & there (a co-worker had suggested I highlight passages or lines for her to do at one time & then have her bring it to me) & stayed in her seat for a grand total of 5 minutes.
I spoke with this young lady's mother after-school on the phone about how we needed to work something out for her daughter to get that medication, because it really isn't fair in a class of 28 students for me to have to mostly attend to just one of them. The mom told me she's not easy to handle at home either, but I reminded her mom that she's just responsible for her daughter at home, whereas I have 27 other kids to be attending to simultaneously while her daughter is acting like that. It was kind of strange to me that the mom said her daughter's medication was "stolen" & they would be refilling it---sounds sketchy, but I'm at least grateful that she showed up on medication today; it made the day somewhat smoother! :)

The First Day of School (round 2)

Today's version of the first day of school went SO much smoother than last year's first day of school. Sure there was still plenty to do and prepare for beforehand, but teaching the procedures and routines vigorously from the very first moment allowed me to set parameters with the students, and set high expectations for the school year......including telling them to act like CIA agents as we tiptoed through the hallways, practicing lining up and walking down the hall.
I felt like I'd been talking far too much this morning, big surprise, I know, & so when I gave the kids a chance to get out of their seats & do some Yoga, & then "interview" each other for a getting to know you survey, & overheard a student say, "this is so fun!" I felt reassured that things were going well.
One student, after I told students to notify me if I mispronounced their names, & one student not only jumped to correct me in pronouncing his name, but in several of his classmates' names as well; it was only slightly obnoxious. 
There were several incidents throughout the day, like students taking lockers assigned to other students, and one heavier student shoving one kid in line & injuring 3 other students in front of him. ....he also managed to rip his pants during a teacher read-aloud. What an adventure! He was rocking back & forth with his shirt stretched over his knees, and when I asked him to "sit on his pockets," he slightly complied. At the end of the story when everyone else had been dismissed to their seats, he didn't move. When I inquired as to what the problem was, he informed me that his pants had ripped & he was too embarrassed to get up. I asked if his shirt wasn't long enough to cover the rip, & he said it wasn't; but he had the "ingenious" idea to grab a backpack & put it on to cover it up. Wow! What a funny kid! I can't imagine something as devastating as ripping ones pants on the FIRST day of school!

Suicide Alters Student's Life

So...........I've really been under the impression lately that people do not fathom how their use of agency can greatly affect others around them. I've had some personal experiences impact me, but this came to a head for me yesterday when I also attended a funeral yesterday for one of my student's dads. He is a particularly gifted student who I grew to love dearly this school year. For whatever reason (s),his dad chose to end his own life last week, & I got the news upon coming back from Virginia.
Although I was rather late to the funeral, my student & his mom saw me when I arrived, & came over to talk to me after the closing prayer at the service. My student was visibly upset & shaken, wiping his cute little eyes with a handkerchief, but as we began talking & I steered away from topics that would involve his dad or things that reminded him of his dad. Unfortunately I heard multiple comments on how he looks just like his dad; not a very timely or appropriate comment. He & I talked basketball, the Olympics, & the fact that he's going to take up guitar now that he's inherited 3 of his dad's guitars.
 I can't imagine what my poor student is going through, being that he has spent the weekend with his dad the least couple years, since his parents divorced, & he has to adjust to not only not having the same place to go on the weekends, but also having to live with the knowledge that he's seen his father grow depressed over time & then take his own life. He can't have had any idea how much that would affect his only son.