Testing Boundaries

Ugh... this day did not start out well. My errands before school were going to be short until Mr. E pulled me into the office to talk about Fine Arts Fair. Turns out MLHS was thinking about cancelling the event because of the possible weather Saturday morning. They were going to decide by 6pm tonight. So, I had to think about what to do about bells. Bring them home with me in case we had the fair? Or leave them at church so they're ready to go Sunday morning? Decisions, decisions. Either way, the bells had to be in my car, so I had my kids load them up. They don't fit in a little red car as well as they fit in my Escape. 

When I finally got back to the classroom, a 5th grade boy was on his way out, face red and puffy from tears. Oh boy, now what? Long story short, every single boy in my classroom was involved in the incident. The crying kid had started it with inappropriate jokes/teasing, a classmate decided not to put up with it and shoved him. The two 6th grade boys grabbed PVC pipes they had been using in STEM and wacked him with them to get him to stop. The other 5th grade boy grabbed a sweatshirt out of crying boy's crate and wouldn't give it back. The girls sat and watched it all. 

All this I figured out in bits and pieces by pulling each boy out into the coat room one at a time, sometimes more than once, trying to get to the bottom of it. UGH! The truth came out slowly. Consequences were each of them had to write an apology note to the appropriate person, I checked it, then they read it out loud in front of the class. They all missed recess and had to spend it in Mr. E's room. He had a chat with them too. Their homework is to tell their parents about it and I'm going to check in with parents Saturday morning. Sigh. What a day. 

We all needed a reset after that. So we put our heads down for 30 seconds and then began our day a half an hour later than expected. 

The rest of the day went much better. At lunch the boys talked again and agreed their tempers had gotten the better of them and they overreacted to the morning's situation. They had all been joking around and really the PVC hitters had only been tapping, not full on hitting. Still not okay. Mr. E, Mrs. R, and I came up with a community service idea if it happens again. Next time, the perpetrator will do lunch dishes or mop the gym or clean the bleachers. Hopefully it won't come to that. 

In the afternoon, we all gathered for Fine Arts Fair dress rehearsal. The kids did great introducing themselves, playing piano/singing/reading their dramatic readings. We talked about the plan for Saturday and Sunday (we also sing and play bells for church Sunday) and had a little time for recess afterwards. As the kids went to recess, Mr. E caught me. The principals down by Northrop decided to cancel the Fine Arts Fair. Man! It was a high and low for many of my students today. Our piano teacher came up with the idea to have kids do their pieces next Wednesday on Family Day for the guests in between chapel and our meal. What a great idea! At least then they'd be able to perform for some sort of audience and all their hard work won't go to waste.