All Before Lunch

Thursday was another sick day and at 1:00 I got a call and a visit from the Chairman of the Board. To recap his message:

The door lost its hinges
Two board members came in to “control” the class
4 kids were written up
5 kids went home
The teacher was accused of threatening the kids with a gun (a student brought in a toy gun and the teacher confiscated it.)
And the classroom was “trashed”

And all before lunch. (This is my life)

Needless to say I was not so happy about a visit from my boss when I was sick at home, nor was I happy about the report he provided.

Friday I headed to school intending to “lay down the law!” Strangely enough the substitute had a decent note to me, claiming the kids weren’t that bad, and instead the “enforcers” on the board were actually making things worse. Not surprising.

I had a earful of “what really happened” via my students and I even heard “I’m so glad you’re back!” from one of my students, who isn’t one of my fans. Although really how many of those do I really have?

And to add icing to the cake the same Chairman decided to return, with another teacher as backup, to try to soothe the situation, during our vocabulary test. They just don’t get these kids, or the idea of appropriate timing. To my students credit they behaved very maturely and it was relatively without incident.

The substitute also provided a teachable moment. For a daily warm-up I had the class edit the warning sentence that she posted on the board: "If you do not be quiet & do your work all will stay in for lunch." I love teachable moments. The kids informed me that this sub admitted to never going to college... joy.

They still want to fund raise and go overnight to a theme park. I keep trying to tell them no but they don’t seem to be hearing me. They are also fully behind this project and I’m seeing respect, and cooperation. Its actually quite refreshing so I’m finding it difficult to completely dash their goals. I left off with “I reserve the right to make the final decision about this trip, even if you manage to raise enough money.” This will shoot me in the foot I’m sure. They have at least $1500 dollars to raise this weekend.