Day 107: Thursday, February 26 - An Eventful Day

Can I just say that today was, um, eventful to say the least. I had three teachers from another elementary school observe me teach for the entire morning. This in and of itself was not eventful. It happens many times per year, and my students and I are used to others wandering into the classroom. The first event unfolded during my reading lesson. C. pulled out what looked like a calculator and was trying to hide it at his side while playing with it.

Whenever I see toys, the first thing I do is walk up to them and just take it. I keep teaching the entire time so the exchange doesn't disrupt the class. I walked over to him, gently grabbed the calculator, and started walking back to the book I was using to demonstrate how to use the index. I felt a pull and realized that C. truly did not want to give it up. I pulled slightly harder, and he pulled back even more. We were now locked in the power struggle they teach against in teaching courses. I looked down to see if there was something I could do stop the tussle and noticed the calculator was actually a carabiner and was connected to his belt loop. I was not struggling to win an argument, I was dragging an eight-year-old across the rug by his pants! He was slightly mid air while trying to detach the carabiner from the belt loop. Needless to say, I felt slightly mortified (and I don't embarrass easily). I apolpgized to C. and finished my lesson as if nothing had happened. I told his mother when she came in to help and she just laughed and scolded her child for bringing it to school. I am just grateful she didn't think I was trying to kill her child for bringing a toy to school.

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Incident two happened during writing (the teachers left by lunch so they didn't get to witness events two and three). D. came up to me with tears just streaming down his face. He is not an emotional kid in the slightest so I knew something had to be wrong. He started telling me this story in between hiccups and sobs.

D. - "I said the f-word (hiccup) and I didn't know what it meant (sob) C. was saying it (breath) and I didn't know it was bad and then C. (different C., same kid from the earlier story) said it was a really bad word (sob) but I didn't know it was bad.."

Me - "D., if you didn't know it was a bad word then you didn't do anything wrong. Just don't say it anymore."

D. was mollified and stopped crying.

C. - "I was just making up a bunch of words and didn't know I was saying a bad word until C. said something." Definitely a believable story in second grade for the area they live in. Most of these kids aren't exposed to much swearing. Too bad it was a pretty bad word. I hope I don't have to send an apology letter to parents explaining why their children now know a fun new swear word.

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Incident three occurred during recess. A girl ran up to me saying that their friend A. was stuck to the pole. In my confusion, I repeated her words, "A. is stuck to the pole?" She said they were playing a game, and A. kept running away, so they tied her to the pole with her shirt ties. That was the tighest knot due to the fact that A. kept pulling against it, presumably hoping it would magically come undone. After trying to untie the knot for a minute, I knew my nails were hopeless in this situation. If Mrs. Simpson couldn't do it, we would have to cut her free. I am sure her mother would have loved that one. After a solid five minutes, A. was a free girl again. I hope they learned their lesson - never annoy your friends or they will tie you to a pole.


And that, my friends, is the end. Life is never dull!