We'll try again

 The last hour of the day is always a dumpster fire at school until they adjust to the time change.

Yesterday, the entire day felt like a dumpster fire.

They finally earned their reward on Friday and it was blanket forts.  I had sent a message to parents on Friday that they had earned the reward and they could bring a blanket on Monday if the parents wanted them to.

Only two kids brought blankets.

One kid asked me if they could go to the office and call home to have their parents bring a blanket.

I said yes.

Then I regretted it the rest of the day.

Every kid wanted to call home.  What was I going to do?  Say that one of them could call home, but not others?  I wrote a deeply apologetic note to the office explaining the situation and sent a parade of third graders to the office, one at a time.

So then the parents started bringing blankets.  You've never seen such a disrupted morning.

Ugh.

I will never let them call home again if they forget a blanket, if I ever do blanket forts again.  So much regret.

One student had lost his headphones on Friday.  We looked everywhere.  Right before lunch yesterday, we found them!  They were in another student's desk.  I put them on his desk.

After lunch, they were gone.

And this student is not a go with the flow type.  He's not an I will just sit here and not create a major disturbance type.  He is also not ever absent (the hardest kids never are).

We looked everywhere!  I was so frustrated.  I offered a reward (either a gummy pineapple candy they are all crazy for or Takis).  That upped the enthusiasm for the hunt.  We finally found them in another student's desk on the other side of the room.  I am starting to suspect he plants them in other's desks so we can have a hunt.  Today I'm going to put bright colored tape on them so they are easy to spot.  

I moved desks after the blanket forts because everything was in disarray anyway.  A girl sobbed because she was sitting by boys.

Adam and I talk about this a lot.  We don't remember kids crying in elementary school.  It seems like it would have branded you a social outcast for life.  I have kids crying every day and it is as mystifying as it is annoying.  I guess it is good that they are in touch with their feelings, but it gets to be "a little much," as my mom would say.

Another girl offered to switch seats so the crier could pick up the shattered pieces of her life and move on.

I tried to do progress monitoring and was disrupted 30 million times.  I talked to them about why I need them to not disrupt progress monitoring and they supplied me with all the reasons.  Knowing and doing are two different things.

You won't be surprised to hear that I was super cranky by the end of the day.  I don't like when I feel impatient and frustrated and I doubt they like it any more than I like their shenanigans. 

It is disheartening to know that I can do better.  I know that I need to be the grown up.  I need to maintain my calm and patience even when the dumpster fire is burning.  I know that.  Knowing and doing are two different things.

So I will give them and me grace.  We will try again.