Wednesday, April 4, 2012

counting the days...

so today . . .  i've smacked myself in the head more than once.  it's just been that kind of day...

my class is falling apart.  i don't know what is going on.  maybe it is spring fever, although, when you live in the land of perpetual sunshine, spring never really disappears.  i mean, we haven't made the kids wear their coats outside more than four or five times all winter.  and even when we do, after five minutes, the fence is covered with tiny little coats that have been shed amid cries of, "but i'm HOT!!!!"

unless, of course, it is "raining."  just let a southern california kid feel a drop of moisture fall from the sky onto their skin, and they will carry on like they are going to die!! 

but i digress...

my class is falling apart.  it has been a wild and wooly year.  which is part of the reason why i haven't blogged too much about school this year.  my year has mostly consisted of trying to gain and maintain some kind of control with a group of kids that seem to be oblivious to the fact that i am actually in the classroom and in charge...  i don't like to yell, but i confess that i have had to raise my voice more than once or twice, JUST TO BE HEARD!!  i have a bell that has worked well with previous classes, but this class has not responded in the desired way to the bell, so the bell has been relegated to the closet...

at any given moment, there are probably two girls arguing, a little boy doing ninja moves, one child hitting or pinching someone (or preparing to hit or pinch someone,)  a girl crying, "he hurt my feelings!" two children throwing toys that are not meant to be thrown, one child grabbing the ONE white trapezoid shaped lego from another child, who is yelling, "I HAD IT FIRST!!!" and then grabbing it back, while the other child yells, "HE TOOK MY LEGO FROM ME!!!!"   there will be at least two children fighting over the same book, maybe three, and one child taking forever in the bathroom... and you know what that means...  two children will be pulling the bin of wooden beads back and forth, both trying to get it closer to them, until the whole thing falls on the floor and beads go everywhere...

to be fair, there will be a couple of little girls and maybe a little boy who will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing... until they get hit with a flying toy or become the victim of the hitter/pincher or ninja boy.  and then, all bets are off...

outside play time is more of the same, only to the tenth power!  it is a constant battle to keep kids happy and safe amid out of control bike riders, boys who insist on playing power rangers and star wars, and girls who form exclusive groups or guard the slide so no one but their friends can use it.  if it weren't for the warm sunshine, recess would be a nightmare...

today i was standing on the edge of the playground, soaking up the sunshine, when chloe came running up to me.  "they won't let me play with them!" she said.  "who?" i asked.  "lucy and nigel.  they won't let me play with them!" she repeated.  "why not?" i asked.  "they just said i can't!!" she wailed.

there are times when i send kids back into the battle with instructions instead of solving the problem for them.  i want to teach them to deal with their issues on their own.  but sometimes, with some children, they just need a little help.  this was one of those situations.  "alright," i said, "come on.  let's go see if we can work it out."  we walked over to where the kids were playing.  "chloe said you guys wouldn't let her play with you." 

i do this a lot.  i just state what is happening and wait to see what they will say.  it makes them think.  which is what they did.  i was suddenly met with blank stares.  that's the look i get when they don't want to tell me what is going on. 

i picked the child who was most afraid of getting into trouble.  "nigel," i said, "what happened?  why won't you let chloe play with you?"  he looked at me with his big eyes and said, "because, there is already a sister, and chloe wants to be a sister."  "can't there be two sisters?" i asked.  "no," he said, "we already have a sister!"  the wide-eyed "am i going to get in trouble" look was now gone, replaced with a look of "duh!  how can you even ask such a dumb question?!?!" look.  "but you guys are just pretending.  lucy isn't really your sister either.  since you are pretending, can't you just pretend that there are two sisters?" i asked.


this is a tricky situation for a four year old.  he knows what he wants.  he knows what i want.  he knows that he doesn't want what i want.  but i'm the teacher.  i have the power to banish him to time out for the rest of his life (or at least the rest of recess, which feels like the rest of his life to him,) and so the wheels are turning... he is trying to decide what the right thing is to say that will keep him out of time out, but also let him play the way he wants to.  finally he gave in.  "ok," he reluctantly said, "she can be a sister."

yes!  victory!!  and i didn't even have to mention time out!  i turned to tell chloe that she can now play the game she was dying to play with the kids she was desperate to play with... and she was gone.

SHE WAS GONE!!  there i was, using my teacher powers to get her into the game, above the protests of the children who didn't want to expand the game. and she was gone.

i looked around and spotted her across the playground riding a scooter, amid the insanely crazy bike riders.  "CHLOE!" i yelled, "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!"  another blank stare.  "WHAT???" she said.  "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!  THEY SAID YOU CAN PLAY.  YOU CAN BE A SISTER!"  i'm thinking she will be thrilled!  i am thinking she will drop that scooter and hustle across that playground so she can "be a sister."  but she doesn't.  "BUT I'M RIDING THE SCOOTER!" she yells.  and then she takes off on the scooter in the opposite direction...
  
this is what i am talking about.  the drama.  the attention span of an ant. and did i mention the drama??

my kids are slowly killing me this year.  but the truth is, it is april.  we only have nine weeks of school left.  if i haven't gotten them whipped into shape by now, the sad truth is, it isn't going to happen.  i've tried my best, but some years are just like that.  individually, i like them all.  but together??

together, they may drive me to drink...

;)

1 comment:

Jes said...

HAHHAHAHAHAHA i feel you the PreK and K are driving me crazy too. i only have an hour with them each day but that's enough to drive me to drink hahahhaa