The Full Week- Monday

Sunday Night

Thanksgiving break was great, but also quick. The first day of a long and full week was approaching like a battering ram. I had planned out the week, still trying to believe that the better the plans were, the better my class might behave. It was a belief that was drilled into my head every day of grad school, “you won’t have to worry about behavior management when your lessons are engaging; trust us, we know.” After a few weeks of trusting them, I learned that engaging lessons failed just like boring ones, but with a bigger mess to clean up. When I read over my plans a second time, it was like I was right back to where I started, my first day as a teacher. If I wanted things to improve, then screw the plan. I had to ratchet up the anger, maybe that would work. I would be the Hulk if it meant people would shut up and do their math.

I mentioned to my wife that maybe the anxiety was passing, and there was no need to see a psychiatrist. She had her doubts. She knew how bad off I had been and said it would only take one bad day to send me right back into the same hole. I had to stop the the kids from controlling my life, but I didn’t know how. If I wanted to be happy, then they needed to be good, and if I wanted them to be good, then I guess I needed to be mean.

Monday

Unfortunately, my wife proved prophetic and that Monday turned out to be the bad day she was talking about. I started the morning by talking about the huge Christmas Party that we would have in the middle of December. I told them they had to earn 3 stickers per week to go to this party of all parties, but by this time of the year, they knew better: do whatever you want, just don’t piss off Mr. Slaughter on party day. For most of my troublemakers, stickers meant nothing, but it meant just a little something to Adam because his mom sometimes asked him about it.  I always reminded him about his mom picking him up to keep him motivated, but this Monday he was not going to earn a sticker. In my class, if you were going to fail, you might as well fail big.

Adam started his trouble because of Ryden. Ryden was smart, but when he came upon something he didn’t know how to do, he didn't ask me, he just copied someone else’s work. Amelia was quietly doing her math when Ryden looked over her shoulder, but she pulled out a folder to block him. So, as any reasonable second grader would do, he started running from table to table, trying to find the answers from other people in the class. Adam thought this looked like a fun game so he got up also and started bothering other tables. “Boys, if you don’t take a seat, then you will receive a 0 on your work.” Bad move, don’t threaten something you don’t want to do. They ignored me - all eyes were on me now. “Alright, you are both getting 0s, and that means I’ll have to talk to your parents about your grades in math.” Well, there goes that consequence. Nothing left to threaten.

Adam turned to me, “I don’t care.” And he ripped up his math packet. Sheets of paper were strewn all over the floor. Anna huffed and rolled her eyes at him, so he picked up her packet, and started running around the room with it. He and Ryden played monkey in the middle with Anna and her math packet, and Evan yelled out, “Ha Anna, you too slow!”

Now Evan liked Anna, and like most 2nd graders, he thought that teasing her was the best way to show her he cared about her. I had the same problem when I was in 2nd grade.  Anna glared at Evan, “You shut up!”

This was a serious declaration in Daley. Evan had to step out of his chair or he couldn't show up to school the next day. “No, you shut up.” Evan moved towards Anna. It’s obvious he didn’t want to fight with the girl he liked, but her public insult had left him no choice. Anna went charging at Evan because she was already on the edge. With fists in the air, I had to jet between them before something horrible happened. Evan was a solid fighter, but it was Anna who just might have clawed his eyes out. If it's strength versus crazy, always bet on crazy. So I ended up putting Anna in time out, while Ryden and Adam jumped up and down because now they had taken Anna’s paper. And she was in time out as result of it. They effectively controlled the classroom.  And I called security, but security never came.

By now, no one cared about their math work anymore, so with a hoarse voice and vein popping out, I yelled .that all their parents were coming next Monday for Parent Teacher day. "I will show them the behavior chart so they'll find out."

I had a behavior chart that marked their daily progress. Five kids got stars every day. 15 kids got stars every once in a while. Five kids never got them. Unfortunately, we all knew their parents weren’t planning on showing up on Monday. I had shown all my cards, and it was only 2:00.