Oh Snap!!

It happened again. While I was in my room preparing for the day, the registrar comes over my speaker and tells me that I will be getting a new student today. Are you kidding me?!? We have 13 days of school left and nevermind that, grades are due in 6 days. And yes, I will be responsible for inputting grades for his 6 days in my class...and they are meant to reflect the past 9 weeks and whether or not he will be promoted to 5th grade. What are parents thinking moving their kids around at this time? I understand the occasional new kid at the end of the year, but a fellow 4th grade teacher also received a new kid yesterday. I'd venture to say that for the past 3 weeks, some 4th grade class has received a new kid.

Anyway, I was a bit disappointed that this new child was a boy because I already have about twice as many boys as girls. I don't really need any more boys in my class. If I stereotype them correctly, the boys tend to be more outwardly expressive, which ultimately means that they are loud and disruptive to our learning. And girls are more dramatic in the gossip area. They talk about each other non-stop but can't stand when someone talks about them. Bunch 'o hypocrites is what they are! Of course I know that not every child is like my two stereotypes, but 75% of my class is. FORTUNATELY, in the few hours that I had to get to know this kid today, I was thankful that he doesn't seem to fit my stereotypes of boys, so far. I've seen it many times before where they are too shy to act out the first few days, but considering that we only have 13 days of school left (12 as of tonight), he might begin to act out after we're done with all serious work (when grades are due). My fingers are crossed.