Spring Fever!

It's that time of year that the kiddos are turning loco (or so I'm told that's the reason). They've decided that the rules they've been living by for the past 7 months aren't good enough for them anymore. Well, that's what I hear from the other teachers...I know that my class hasn't lived by any rules (more or less) for the last 7 months. Even since I've been their teacher, it's been quite difficult to instill structure because of so much resistance. Anyway...

Yesterday I got fed up with a group of boys who continually disrupt learning in my classroom and called the principal to step in. She had a little talk with them and if you read yesterday's blog, you know it was ineffective. Today I told them that my fuse was short. I would warn them and then their clips would be moved. If they moved it 4 times, it wouldn't be lunch detention, but an office referral. I can talk a big game, but I hate backing it up. I know that I have to in order to make myself credible. Fortunately, I did not have to write any of them up...they were close, but not quite there. Woooo on that note...

We were getting ready to pack up for the day (before our assembly) when an incident happened with 2 boys, an innocent bystander, and a chair. Somehow the chair leg ended up in the stomach of the innocent bystander and the other two boys were playing around. Neither wanted to claim responsibility and kept putting it on the other person. I asked them each to move their clips. After one of them did this, he walked across the room and on his way, pushed a desk and yelled at another kid to "SHUT UP!" I couldn't let a kid pull this in class...the others would think they could as well (and I have plenty that would try).

Did I mention that this same kid had already been called down for his referral from his bus driver this morning? He came back without any consequence because it was his first referral since he's been at our school, but he felt the need to brag about it and tell the kids what he did and that nothing happened. He even bragged before he left the room about getting a referral, like it was an accomplishment. After I spoke to the principal, he was called back down to discuss choices and consequences and that in the future the consequences would be more severe.

Well, they were definitely more severe when he visited the office for the third time in one day. He will now be thinking about his anger management in ISS for two days. But, he's not the only one...It's Spring Fever for a reason and there are many other 4th graders that will be keeping him company next week. I do feel bad for the boy because he doesn't have the greatest role models at home, but it's still important that he understand appropriate choices and that his actions determine his future.