Failure

Today had a lot of ups and downs. 


I planned to do another science lab today, this one inside so the students would be more contained.  It went MUCH better.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Last night I had to get supplies for the lab since I forgot about that last weekend.  I needed a bunch of metal slinkys, one for each group.  Mrs. B (1st and 2nd) told me she had seen some for a dollar at Target.  Woohoo!  Fresh fruit was also on the grocery list for the lab, and I figured Walmart would have better prices for those items.  Just for comparison sake, I dove deep into the recesses of the toy aisle to see what Walmart slinkys would cost.  Answer: $3.  Eh, Target is probably cheaper, I thought to myself.  I'm sure you can guess where this is going...


At Target I found the slinky location with minimal trouble.  And they were $5 each.  Yuck.  And there were only three left.  I needed 4-6.  By now, it was 8:00 and I was tired and wanted to go home.  If there had been the number I needed, maybe I would've just up and paid the $5.  But since I needed at least a couple more... back to Walmart... all the way on the other end of town.  Sigh.


When I got home, I corrected English papers (something I'd been putting off too long).  I finally realized why I hate correcting papers; I'm actually scared to.  My students have the bad habit of only reading half the instructions.  They answer half the question and think they're done and hand it in!  So I end up making them redo it anyway!  Out of all 12 of my students, only ONE didn't have to redo his Minnesota history worksheet.  Sigh.


This morning at school, I found a tersely worded email from a parent who's upset with the amount of time her daughter has to spend on math homework.  She said the student isn't getting it and one of the parents has to sit next to her and constantly help with every single problem.  Right now she's going to Miss H. for extra help, but she comes with her assignment done and no questions, so Miss H. doesn't have anything to work on with her.  She can't work on today's assignment because Mr. E hasn't assigned it yet and he hasn't taught the lesson yet!  And it's not Miss H's job to teach this student math!  So.  We're not sure what to do.  One option would be to move this student's time with Miss H to the end of the day after she gets her math assignment.  However, that means she'd miss part of recess... something her parents didn't want.  Sigh.  You can't please everyone.  I really hate being in the middle of all this.  I don't know what goes on in math because that's Mr. E's forte.  But parents forget they can directly email Mr. E so they bombard me with questions that can only be answered by Mr. E. 


My class's noise level was better today.  Before read aloud I told them we weren't going to finish the book today, but I'd read as long as I could.  They were surprisingly quiet when I put the bookmark in and closed it.  We had an English test today and they were pretty quiet for that.  One student insisted on making noise, even when his classmates told him to stop.  I didn't notice it too much, but I'm fairly immune to annoying noises (thanks to my brothers) and I wasn't the one taking a test.  I think tomorrow I'll have to send him to Mr. E's room to finish it. 


The picking-on situation hasn't gotten any better.  This afternoon during our science lab everyone seemed to be getting along... and then before going home for the day, one student who's been targeted by one of his classmates came up to me and said, "Miss H, I have to tell you something."  When I paused what I was doing, he looked at the ground and said, "Never mind." and walked away.  I thought about asking him if he was sure he didn't want to tell me, but I didn't.  A few seconds later I heard another classmate and him talking about the bully picking on him.  They were saying that I probably wouldn't do anything to the bully anyway.  The other kid kind of stood up for me a little, "Well, she's probably trying to be nice to him since he's new." 


Ugh! I felt like such a horrible teacher!  Seriously, I never see this bully do anything wrong.  A few times I catch him making a face or a weird noise or something.  Half the time it's something that isn't a big deal, the annoyed people are choosing to get annoyed with it instead of letting it go.  But I don't want to be that teacher that doesn't do anything about it so the kids don't tell her anything.  And I don't know what to do.  Talking to this bully doesn't change anything; he doesn't care.  He hates talking about his feelings and actions and he'll lie or shrug his shoulders if you confront him about something he did.  The ones tattling/getting picked on also blow things out of proportion and lie as well.  So I don't know who to believe.  Can I tell them this?  Maybe.  Though I can see them thinking, "Well if Miss H can't tell when I'm lying, then I can get away with anything! Yeah!"  None of the other teachers had any bright ideas either.  The whole reason the bully is picking on this kid in the first place is because he knows he'll get a rise out of him.  The picked-on kid knows it too.  But it's really hard to ignore someone who's constantly doing things to annoy you.  So I think I have to have a talk with the picked-on kid tomorrow.  I wonder if it would work to ask him what he thinks I should give the bully as a consequence.


A slightly funny tangent on this story.  The girl who's frequently a target of this individual (same story... she gives back almost as much as he's dishing out and I can't tell who's telling the truth) decided she'd hire "body guards" to protect her from this kid.  She has three or four 5th grade boys who are going to surround her so this mean kid can't get at her whenever they're close together.  I'm pretty sure she's planning to pay them, but I'm going to nix that. 


As for consequences for this mean kid/bully... I don't want to take away his recess because he needs to get outside and run around.  I can't lecture him on his behavior because he literally goes to lala land; I can see his eyes glaze over.  I'm thinking for every mean thing he does, he'll have to run a lap at recess.  That way he's still being active outside, but he's segregated from his classmates and still has a consequence for his actions.  Good idea? Bad idea?  Any feedback is welcome!