breakin tha laws
two days down at school and i already did what a teacher is not supposed to do - broke up a fight. yesterday was fine, but i hadn't quite found my groove yet. the kids weren't bad, just talkative. today, i walked in knowing things would be different. first block = awesome. kids on task. kids learning. kids contributing. good classroom management even though i didn't have desks for three kids. second block = awesome. seating chart fixed behavior issues. kids engaged. kids learning. first half of third block = fine. two kind of mouthy kids, but nothing too bad. and then it happened...
i was helping one of my girls at her desk when i heard desks move behind me. i turned around to see two of my 12 year old boys throwing punches at each other. as i made my way to them, i was telling them to break it up and get away from each other, but they're 12 and full of hormones and adrenaline and blind to the world at that point.
now let me pause to say that just last night i was telling my dad that i never get in the middle of a fight once the kids have made physical contact. if i can get to them before that point, i'll push them apart. otherwise, we're legally not supposed to touch the kiddos because of lawsuits, etc.
HOWEVER, in the heat of the moment all i was thinking is "i want this out of my classroom five minutes ago." so, i pushed the boys apart and got in between them. the kids kept fighting AROUND me and i got punched a few times. one of my girls, who is cousins to one of the fighting boys, jumped up and tried to hold him back. i got one kid outside and asked him what in the hell happened. he told me the other kid took his pencil and said something to him. TOOK HIS F-ING PENCIL. this is the crap they're beating each other up for. we had a quick visit about how i could've helped him if he'd told me what happened, but he refused to allow me that opportunity by choosing to fight it out. then the school officer came and took the boys away. i couldn't get over how quickly it happened. normally there's the exchange of comments, which escalates to raised voices, which escalates to standing, which escalates to "what's up bitch let's go," which finally escalates to violence. this went from comments to violence in 2.4 seconds. over a pencil. wtf mate.
later i found out that one of the boys has meds for behavioral issues and hadn't taken them this morning. glad i got a heads up on that one. in the end, i had to decline filing charges against the kids for hitting me and i had to decline workman's comp for any possible injuries. personally, i think that was a bit absurd. i mean, have you seen a 7th grader lately? they're pocket-sized. the fact that i could separate them shows how little damage they could do to me without some type of weapon.
aside from that drama, it's been nice to get back to teaching. i love helping kids figure stuff out. there's a hard road ahead of me in that department because some of them write on a 1st grade level. no joke. a lot of them are english language learners and just don't have vocabulary. some of them spell on a phonetic level (wun = one). i had to HELP some of them figure out what the title of their literature book was today. the title. as in the name of the book.
what makes it worth it already are the freaking adorable little ones that smile through the entire class and seem so eager to learn. there's one kid i want to eat with a spoon because he's just so tiny and sweet. also, i had forgotten how great it feels to have kids go out of their way to say hi to you or give you a hug while they're with their friends. it tells me that at least some of them know i'm here for them and that i am dedicated to building solid foundations.
tomorrow, however, i get to tell the rest of my classes that from here on out nobody better test me or i'll have to regulate.
i was helping one of my girls at her desk when i heard desks move behind me. i turned around to see two of my 12 year old boys throwing punches at each other. as i made my way to them, i was telling them to break it up and get away from each other, but they're 12 and full of hormones and adrenaline and blind to the world at that point.
now let me pause to say that just last night i was telling my dad that i never get in the middle of a fight once the kids have made physical contact. if i can get to them before that point, i'll push them apart. otherwise, we're legally not supposed to touch the kiddos because of lawsuits, etc.
HOWEVER, in the heat of the moment all i was thinking is "i want this out of my classroom five minutes ago." so, i pushed the boys apart and got in between them. the kids kept fighting AROUND me and i got punched a few times. one of my girls, who is cousins to one of the fighting boys, jumped up and tried to hold him back. i got one kid outside and asked him what in the hell happened. he told me the other kid took his pencil and said something to him. TOOK HIS F-ING PENCIL. this is the crap they're beating each other up for. we had a quick visit about how i could've helped him if he'd told me what happened, but he refused to allow me that opportunity by choosing to fight it out. then the school officer came and took the boys away. i couldn't get over how quickly it happened. normally there's the exchange of comments, which escalates to raised voices, which escalates to standing, which escalates to "what's up bitch let's go," which finally escalates to violence. this went from comments to violence in 2.4 seconds. over a pencil. wtf mate.
later i found out that one of the boys has meds for behavioral issues and hadn't taken them this morning. glad i got a heads up on that one. in the end, i had to decline filing charges against the kids for hitting me and i had to decline workman's comp for any possible injuries. personally, i think that was a bit absurd. i mean, have you seen a 7th grader lately? they're pocket-sized. the fact that i could separate them shows how little damage they could do to me without some type of weapon.
aside from that drama, it's been nice to get back to teaching. i love helping kids figure stuff out. there's a hard road ahead of me in that department because some of them write on a 1st grade level. no joke. a lot of them are english language learners and just don't have vocabulary. some of them spell on a phonetic level (wun = one). i had to HELP some of them figure out what the title of their literature book was today. the title. as in the name of the book.
what makes it worth it already are the freaking adorable little ones that smile through the entire class and seem so eager to learn. there's one kid i want to eat with a spoon because he's just so tiny and sweet. also, i had forgotten how great it feels to have kids go out of their way to say hi to you or give you a hug while they're with their friends. it tells me that at least some of them know i'm here for them and that i am dedicated to building solid foundations.
tomorrow, however, i get to tell the rest of my classes that from here on out nobody better test me or i'll have to regulate.
1 Comments:
today, a class advertised a lovely "cheescake" in very large letters on a very large whiteboard. hopefully by getting to them earlier, we can avoid this embarrassment in the future.
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regan, at 7:16 PM
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