All I Did...

The craziness continues...maybe it wasn't just Halloween. Although, there was a full moon this week. I'm a firm believer full moons mess with middle schoolers in crazy ways!

When students cause somewhat minor disturbances in class, our form of time out is to bounce them to another teacher where they get a chance to reflect on their behavior. They fill out a reflection sheet, and sometimes are asked to return to class if they can agree to meet behavior expectations.

Some students come in very angry about getting bounced. Some laugh it off. Some cry. Some show no emotion at all. Some rec havoc in the other classroom. You never know what you're going to get.

The other day, a boy came in my room. He was furious and crying, very obviously upset. I gave him a few minutes to calm down and then walked over to be sure he was completing his reflection. When I asked what was going on, he said,

"All I did was yell at Mr. Johnson."

I looked at him for a second and asked him to say that again.

He repeated, "All I did was yell at Mr. Johnson." (with this tone of shock that he had been asked to leave Mr. Johnson's room).

Later in the week, another boy was bounced to me. When I went over to check on him, he said,

"All I did was throw some rocks across the classroom. And one came close to hitting Ms. Zenner and my friend"

I'm beginning to think my expecations for common sense are too high...

By Friday, things were super crazy. Friday morning, 8...EIGHT...of my students got themselves suspended before 8am. Before 8 am...

The thing is they weren't even doing "major" things. They were just being stupid. Five of them decided to skip class by running into the woods. They got themselves back with an adult before people found them, but they told two of their other friends (who were in trouble for something else) what they were doing.

When 7th graders are in trouble, they take as many people down with them as they can. So, of course those two told all of the adults what was going on.

Even if they hadn't told us what was going on, these students took pictures of themselves in the woods and posted them on Instagram, not realizing their other friends (who were not in trouble) would gladly share those pictures with their teachers.

All I could do was laugh at this bizarre situation.

Dear 7th graders,

If you're going to skip class, think it through a little bit. Have a good story ready to go. Don't post pictures of yourself skipping on the internet. Don't tell people who aren't going with you. And, at least pretend like you're doing something you're supposed to be doing.

Love,
Mrs. Snyder

#smh