Yesterday one of my students let out a yelp and when I went to see what happened, the little girl sitting next to the yelper (overcome with guilt and remorse evidently, since I didn't even have a chance to say anything) immediately paled, pointed across the table and said, "She told me to pinch her!"
Where do you even start with that kind of confession? What to do with the one who suggested such a mean stunt and what to do with the one who thought it was a good idea? We have had the mean kids talk before and generally they are not badly behaved with each other. We have three rules in our class:
Be Nice.
Work Hard.
Think.
They weren't doing very well that day...so, we had another little talk about being family and taking care of each other.
So much of my job is character building. Teach a kid to read???? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Teach a kid to care? Ever so much harder.
We have much sickness going around our classroom and our school. Strep throat is most rampant, but we also have chicken pox and whooping cough in the school, so I am hoping that, perhap, the perpatrators just weren't feeling quite well.
And, starting on Sunday, I found I was having trouble taking deep breaths. No time for this. Have to do lesson plans. Monday, at school, was a little painful. Monday night I could not lay down it hurt so badly. Today, I finally broke down and went to the doctor...pleurisy. Mega dose ibuprofen and heat. So, I took my medicine and I wish you could see me sitting here. I have two velcro stretchy things holding my heated corn bag thingy (that I ususally use to heat my feet in bed) to my ribs. Next, I am going to attempt bed...in the prone position.
Here's to being well soon and having a kinder and gentler classroom.
I feel your pain, literally. I just had pleurisy three weeks ago. It was one of the most painful things I have ever had. It feels like someone is stabbing you in the chest! And John was away at Hilton Head playing golf! Take care of yourself and make sure you take that ibuprofen---that will really help. I still have one little sore spot that hurts if I laugh or couph really hard. We have lots of sick kids at school, too. I thought we were supposed to be immune to all this junk! LOL Guess not! Get lots of rest. Maybe you should take a day off from school? Hint, hint! :)
ReplyDeleteNo days off...those things count when you are retiring! I feel better this morning. Really. Off to take my ibuprofen.
ReplyDeleteFeel better!
ReplyDeleteChaz tells me stories like this every day as she drives home. She's teaching Physics and Chem and some general science in a private school and has everybody from sixth grade to seniors in her classes. I used to feel a little angry about this - parents who were evidently not doing their joy, teaching the basic mores expecting me to make up for what they, with their family power didn't show the child themselves. We just do our best. Bringing up my own kids was one constant stream of explanation and reset. Today, Chaz was reading an assignment from one kid who suddenly seemed to be taking the class seriously. She bought his answers till he started talking about quantum equations on the second page - an eighth graded - googled one of his sentences and found all his answers on Ask.com. I had to laugh. One of my kids did that once, turned in this perfect essay on whatever author we were writing about - and I, on deep suspicion, went to the library and sampled the encyclopedia entries - it was Collier's. I marked his paper: Colliers gets an A. You get an F. That kid grew up, became a teacher, and I believe he's actually teaching in the same room I was using in those days - and has for twenty years.
ReplyDeleteToo late to wish you to feel better. Wish I'd read this in real time. But here's hope you do.
I am completely better physically and that means I can deal with everything else better. I have watched the little one who thought it was a good idea to pinch attempt to ease her way back into the good graces of the group. It is always baby steps. One of the parents of the two offenders said, "Oh." when I told him. The other said, "Do whatever you need to do."
ReplyDeleteTeaching is a lot of parenting even though there are many people out there who don't hesitate to tell me...but, you aren't a parent! sigh