Damaged Goods?

I love teaching. I think I was born to teach. However, I think I still hold the record for being the worst behaved student at Ridgecrest Elementary School. I remember being paddled in music class AND by my second grade teacher. This really didn't change my behavior. I excelled at third grade with a very understanding teacher that understood my creativity and curiosity. She knew when I had the wiggles to put me to work cleaning and organizing. Even still, there were years and years of spending time in the principal's office. I would walk in and he would automatically dial my parents' phone numbers from memory. I was a "Tomboy" and loved doing anything possible to get the boys to chase me at recess. I would hit the boys, kick them or give them a karate chop and flip them over my back just to get their attention. I remember one time the teacher said, "I'm going to paddle the next person that talks." The boy sitting behind me took the opportunity to pull my pony tail. Without the opportunity to explain myself I was sent to the hall. I wasn't about to be paddled, so I simply ran out the back of the school and ran all the way home. My plan worked perfectly because I got home and started watching television. The only problem was the principal came and got me. My parents had the rule that if you got paddled at school you got it twice as bad at home. I don't remember being spanked very often at home, but I do remember being grounded all the time. So, why was I so bad? I was really over-active and had good intentions. I was curious. I remember bringing a magnifying glass to school to see if the sunlight coming through the window and passing through the glass could ignite paper. My 4th grade teacher wasn't amused when smoke was coming out of my desk. My teachers would have a heart attack if they only knew I became a teacher.

Last week I heard about how horrible some of my students were in previous grades. Call it old age or call it bad memory, but I don't remember these children being horrible when I taught them 2 years ago. Some of them had some personal issues, but they really weren't horrible. Some of the students (actually a bunch of them) were behind in school, but they weren't really just damaged goods. I refused to write them off then and I have vowed not to listen to the negative comments now. These are children that belong to somebody's parent. That parent really did send me their best child and it's up to me to make them better. The parents aren't keeping the good kids at home and sending me the bad kids. It's up to me to turn it around.

On the third day of school we had a child just show up without a parent to register the child (to keep the child anonymous I will not reveal any detail including gender about the child, so please forgive the monotony.) He/she was finally assigned to a homeroom and began rotating with his/her class. The child got in trouble in every class he/she went to. I was determined to find out what was going on. Typically children are on their best behavior on their first day of a new school, so why was this child acting out? I found out this little child had more issues in his/her life that most adults wouldn't be able to handle. The next time he/she was in my class I had the opportunity to pull the child aside. I made sure all the issues I could help him/her with like money for the MOOSE notebook, school supplies, and even clothing were taken care of for him. All of a sudden there was a different child in my classroom. I told this child there were adults at school that could help him/her with the problems. Today I noticed the child walking in the hall in a different direction from where he/she should have been and found out he/she went to go have a conversation with someone about the issues. A child just needs an advocate. A child needs to know what it is he/she is doing right and how to improve. Every child really does want the positive attention, but when they can't get the positives needed from an adult, they will seek out the attention in anyway possible. I call it the firework display of emotions. Sometimes the fireworks are beautiful and sometimes you get the duds that misfire. In the end, all you care about seeing is the beautiful finale of all the colors that finally come together.

In the grocery store fruit department, the damaged fruit is tossed to the trash. The bruised bananas are discarded and no one gives them a second glance. In my classroom, if a child is damaged, they aren't discarded. I'll love them, encourage them, scold them when needed, but they are anything but discarded. Damaged goods? I don't think so. I wouldn't even put my students on "clearance." Afterall, their parents sent me their best child. It's up to me to make them even better.

Probably Need a Rule

This school year has been a huge change over the previous year. Our school has only three rules, but really they are expectations of what each child should do. Everything was going well and it seemed like everything was falling into place until cafeteria duty. I noticed a student not feeling well. His color, his lack of appetite, and lack of energy were tell-tale signs of an obvious problem. He had already visited the school nurse, but with no fever present, the child was sent back to class. After lunch the sick child would be in my science class. At the end of the table a child was mixing his food into a soupy mixture of applesauce, mashed potatoes and chocolate milk. The thought crossed my mind to move the sick child near the gross concoction to encourage projectile......if the child threw up, he would remain in the clinic. Of course I would never subject a child to that and I ordered the "gourmet chef" to throw away his concoction.

A short time later I was in the middle of teaching when I noticed the sick child growing increasingly pale. "I think he's gonna hurl," the kid across from him hollared. I quickly grabbed the trashcan and placed it beside his desk.

"Boys and girls, I know we are trying to have only three rules this year," I said. I was quickly corrected, "Don't ya mean expectations?" "Okay, we have three expectations, but I think we need to have a new rule," I said. The same student interrupted, "Don't ya mean expectation?" I was growing impatient by the minute. "NO, I think this is definitely going to be a RULE!" I turned and gave my little interrupter the big eyes. My body language definitely said, "Don't even think about talking again for the rest of your life or until the end of class." "Boys and girls, if you are going to be sick..." Another student inserted, "Like your gonna hurl." And then it became a contest exploding around the room on how many ways and interpretations being "sick" could be named. (Vomit comet, blow chunks, upchuck, blow beads) I finally defined "sick" as any state of matter (solid, liquid, or gas) that had previously been in one's body and was rapidly on the way out of said body. "Boys and girls, if you are going to get sick, do NOT get sick on the carpet. It is the most difficult to clean. So, run for the door and hurl onto the grass. If I try to stop you from leaving the room, just go. Trust me, I'll figure it out real quick. And by all means, stay away from my desk." After 24 years of teaching, I have had multiple times my desk was the target of a sick child.

The new rule came just in time. It wasn't the sick kid I had identified in the cafeteria. It was the asthmatic. Let's just say the grass outside my portable took one for the team.

A School with NO Rules

Our school had a bunch of rules last year. This year we threw away the rules. That's right. We are offically a school without rules. One would think children were running a muck, but that is not the case inside our school. We put all of the responsibility on the children. In our school we have three behavior expectations for kindergarten through 6th grade. Rule #1: I come to school ready to learn and to allow others to learn. Rule #2: I am responsible for my own learning. Rule #3: I will show respect through my actions and words. It has been working well so far, but what do we do when we have parents breaking the rules? Visitors to the building are supposed to enter through the front doors and do all business in the office which includes signing in and getting a badge. It's pretty funny when a parent is caught red-handed going on a covert operation to deliver a lunch to their child in a classroom while avoiding the office. It's equally interesting in the afternoon at dismissal when all common sense seems to cease as parents wave their children across traffic to get in the car just to avoid the carpool line. Equally disturbing to me are cars going the wrong way on a one way street....to accomplish what exactly? One would think by the wild parent drivers that dismissal took hours and hours of sitting in seemingly endless lines to pick up a child after school. One would envision parents having to pack a canteen and a backpack of snacks to endure the waiting. Our precision dismissal procedures deliver each child to awaiting cars within 12 minutes. If parents would actually just be patient and follow the rules, I bet it would be less than that. Parents, slow down and take a moment to watch for our children. Is it really worth the three minutes saved to break the rules?

I question, "Can I put the parents in after school detention?"

Day 3 Tardy or not tardy?

After having such issues with turning in my attendance on time yesterday, I could hardly sleep worrying about whether the computer version of attendance would really work. Armed with my Starbucks coffee and a bottle of Tums, I entered my classroom and turned on the computer in preparation for the day. By 8:15 AM I had taken attendance for my class and had no problems from my computer. We had only one student absent and the electronic version of attendance worked with flying colors. I was in the swing of my science lesson when there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find my student with a tardy slip in hand. I read the reason for tardy "bus situation." Surely this sweet student of mine wasn't involved in a fight on the bus on the third morning of school, so I felt the need to inquire about this.

"What bus situation did you have?" I said. He looked into my eyes and said, "I wound up at the high school." Usually I am known as the compassionate teacher, the consoling one, or even the cheerleader, but I started laughing. I asked him, "So when exactly did you determine you were on the wrong bus?' He answered, "When I got to the high school, I figured it out." Well that certainly didn't help curtail my laughing because at that point I became hysterical with tears streaming down my face. My poor student went to high school and sat in the office until another bus picked him up and gave him a ride to the correct school. I went next door to my teaching partner to ask, "So...he's no longer absent, but is he really tardy? He was at school on time...just not the right school!" I went to my desk and got my fluffy rolling teacher chair. I said to the kid, "Anyone that starts their day like you did AND makes me laugh that hard gets to sit in the teacher chair." He smiled and we continued with class.

So, my attendance was on time, but the absent student was tardy or not really tardy. Because of all of this, does that make my attendance tardy again? That is a question for another day.

Day 2---Why? why? WHY?

Today is all about the "why?" On day two the science lesson was setting up the student science notebook and composition book. All of my fellow 6th grade teachers across the district were supposedly teaching the same lesson at the exact same time. When I was going through my lesson plans, it never dawned on me that only a handful of the 80 students would actually have the science composition book. Why would that be? It was never put on the district supply list! The students and parents didn't know to buy it. ARGH!!!!

In elementary school a teacher must be at certain places at exact certain times. Everything and I mean everything runs with honed precision down to the exact minute. This morning after calling roll and all of my children were present, I sent my attendance to the office. My classroom is outside in an old surplus WWII barracks. The outside of my building is a dull Army brown, but inside my room has been transformed into a tropical paradise. Even still, with today's "stranger danger" times, we keep our doors locked and students travel in pairs with my building key to go inside. A trip to the office is a big ordeal. My two Helpers of the Day took my attendance, well actually one would travel to the office with the attendance and the other helper would return to my room with the key. Please...they are 6th graders with a key to Ft. Knox, I mean the building, so I don't let them go very far. Several minutes later my helper returned from the long trek to the office holding my attendance in hand. "Why are you back with that?" I asked half-heartedly, "Did the office get moved from yesterday?" It was around 9:28-ish and the attendance MUST be in the office by 10:00 AM. My little helper shyly said, "You have to turn it in at 10:00 AM." I'm sure the expression of disappointment on my face showed, because this sweet little helper gave me a hug and said, "It's going to be okay." Why on Earth would my attendance not be accepted 32 minutes early? ALL of my students were present. Were more of my already 100% in attendance going to show up? Why could I not turn in my attendance? A student rescued me by handing me my Starbucks cup of Joe. Thank goodness! All is right with the world again. While changing classes at 10:28, my teacher intern came up to me and said, "I think it's past time to get your roll turned in." I knew it! I just knew it!!!! My attendance was now past due and undoubtedly I would be scolded for being tardy. I'm not sure what the punishment is for a tardy teacher's attendance...detention?

The next surprise came at recess when we found out the office decided to move the kindergarten and first grade lunches back 10 minutes. Now this might not seem like a big deal, but if no one had bothered to tell the 6th grade teachers, we would have entered the cafeteria to find little kindergartners still occupying our sixth grade seats. I have learned not to stand between a hungry 6th grader and his food. It's like a hungry bear going through a vacationer's car. The cafeteria ended up being backed up 10 minutes the entire day.

While my students were at Fine Arts time, I had a few minutes to race through some e-mails. I discovered that attendance would be done electronically starting in the morning. Why am I not overly excited about this news? In order for attendance to happen in the morning, I would need to follow a few short steps to set-up my Teacher Attendance Center. Let's get something straight. Anytime anyone says technology will only take a few minutes can immediately be translated to hours and hours of frustration. By this time in the afternoon my Starbucks is long gone and the effects are waning. Three hours of frustration, two e-mails and two colleagues later, I'm all set for tomorrow's attendance. At least my computer won't tell me "You're too early!"

I have only one question to ask, "Why is tomorrow only Wednesday?"

First Day of School

It was 2:00 AM when I last checked the clock anticipating the start of school. I don't know if it was nerves, eagerness, anticipation, or just dreading the end of a perfect summer. I knew it would definitely be a Starbucks morning. One Venti Vanilla Latte with some Half & Half and I would be ready for just about anything. I arrived in the parking lot at 7:20 AM and already a sea of ants were swarming the school. The Paparazzi Parents were in full swing with bug-eyed children in tow. It was a mix of divas and independents. The divas had the perfect hair, the outfit that matched the backpack, and the sparkling school supplies. The independents just showed up. These are the ones I especially felt sorry for because their parents hadn't purchased their school supplies and they were wearing the same clothes they were wearing yesterday or the day before that. However, they were smiling....they were ALL smiling! I wasn't officially on the clock and yet by 7:30 AM my entire class was present and ready to roll. I had only managed a sip of my Starbucks and so was operating at BC..."before coffee" mode. Fortunately I had been blessed with two teacher interns this year. Fortunately, I knew every student by name because I taught them when they were 4th graders. The students and parents already knew what to expect from me. I had been deemed the "fun teacher" that was strict. I'm still wondering how one can be strict and fun at the same time. All in all, I had a great day, but my feet hurt and exhaustion from lack of sleep are at the forefront of my mind. This is certainly going to be an interesting year.