Big Fight on the 3rd day
September 4, 2008 by Ms. S
Everything was going well. I had just gone over all our rules and consequences. Our situational exercises and share outs had gone so smoothly. We lined up. And the most horrific thing that could possibly happen just as students are being dismissed.
A fight.
3 students in the front of the line had a “misunderstanding.”
Student 1: She pushed me.
Student 2: She accidentally pushed him and he thought she did it on purpose and he got mad.
Student 3: It was an accident.
Student 1: How could it be an accident?! I was right in front of your face!
Student 2: And then he called her FAT.
[Student 3 starts crying here.]
That’s right. This all happened as the entire line was quiet and listening to them argue. Unbelievable. I can’t believe this happens ON THE DAY we SPECIFICALLY go over RESPECTING one another.
Good news is that it was handled in 5 minutes.
I listened to each side, and after I realized that NONE of their stories matched up, I gave them two choices.
You can either choose detention, or we can all work together to come up with 3 things we’re going to do differently tomorrow so that this never happens again.
Thankfully, they begrudgingly chose option 2. The results are as follows:
- I will make an announcement tomorrow that there will be no shoving in line, and no one will be peeking into my classroom. They will simply stand in ALPHABETICAL order until I am ready for them to come in.
- If there is an argument or misunderstanding, it will be conducted in private and dealt with me. NOT in front of the ENTIRE class.
- We will start over because tomorrow is a new day.
Hopefully, we’re accountable for these things and my scholars actually fulfill these goals.
And to think that Days 1 and 2 went so swimmingly! Children are so unpredictable sometimes.
I always come home super tired and hungry. I mean my calves haven’t stopped throbbing since yesterday and I can’t get a minute in my day to eat until dinner time. Teaching is so difficult, especially when all our schedules are still disorganized and I don’t have a curriculum.
Thus begins the war on the achievement gap.
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[...] keep two students after school today so that we could have a discussion on respect and cooperation. Why do the worst moments of my day always happen in the last 10 minutes of class? Is there some scientific formula to this [...]
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