Honeymoon Over

Okay, it stopped being perfect yesterday. That said, it's still a whole lot better than last year.

Yesterday morning, there was a fifth grade field trip, so several teachers were out of the building, and I had to cover one typing class. Typing is challenging in general; it's a sort of filler class, and the students know that. It's an important skill, but is usually taught by another subject teacher as is something along the lines of "Log on to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" and stick to that for 50 minutes. I think it sounds like a blast, but the kids don't like it. It's always a struggle to keep them on task.

And yesterday, I taught a class in the morning, and then took that same class to typing. It was a two-hour fun fest. This is the class that is often the most challenging, but they were fine during science class. During typing, however, three students were talking, giggling, and off task the entire time. I took dollars off, but they didn't listen. I separated one girl from the group, but after she found someone else to talk to, I sent her to the dean's office. And here is where it gets extra interesting.

When I set girl #1 to the dean's office, girl #2 snarls under her breath, "Bitch". Of course, in my insecurity, I wasn't completely sure, so I waited until after class to take her to the dean. I was fuming at this point.

Unfortunately, I couldn't be 100% confident that she used profanity directed towards me, and explained that to the dean. She took two students out of class to ask what happened. One didn't hear anything, and the other swore that she said "Snitch". Yeah, okay. So she didn't get suspended, but the three students were pulled out of class for the day and forced to apologize for me. Next time, I need to be more confident in my accusations. The three kids are not new to the dean's office.

I'm a little concerned that this student now thinks that she can get away with this stuff. I was also incredibly guilty about sending students out of my classroom. I think I have this ridiculous guilt complex about sending kids out, after some events last year. I was assured, though, by everyone, including the dean, that sending out kids is okay. In fact, the dean likes it, because then she can keep track of which students are problematic. She told me that whenever I need a break from the Kids We Love Most, I am free to send them to her. Well, okay. Still not in Kansas anymore.

And then today, we started volcanoes. It's as easy as I thought. I say the word "volcano" and kids perk up. They did everything I asked them. They were perfect angels this morning. They've already learned about volcanoes (this section of the course is pretty consistent with the 5th grade curriculum), but that didn't slow their enthusiasm. Their hands were in the air the whole time, basically teaching the class for me. "What happens next?" "And after that?" The best part was at the end, I left a few minutes for questions because they had SO MANY. The first student asked a question--and hands shot up in the air. Thus began the first mostly-student run Q&A session in science class. It was super easy and super fun.

Silent excitement for volcanoes!