Grateful Friday

Some weeks the best thing I have to be grateful about is that it is Friday.  It has been a long week--exacerbated by the distributive property.  They. Don't. Get. It.

One of them wondered, "Why do we even have to learn this anyway?!?"

At this point, I have no idea.

I'm also grateful that I don't have recess duty today.  I have recess duty on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They are learning basketball in PE and so all the kids want to play basketball at recess.  So far in PE they apparently haven't covered that basketball isn't a contact sport.

I physically separated fist fights, I gathered kids up off the pavement, I slapped on bandaids, I put my arm around a boy who had been elbowed in the stomach (hard and on purpose) until he got his breath back.  It was a wild ride..because there are also soccer fights happening.  There are always soccer fights.  Then the soccer ball got kicked into the parking lot and it was wedged under a car.  I recruited a boy who is wiry and athletic and he owed me because he had been the instigator of a lot of soccer fights.  I walked him over to the car and had him climb underneath and kick the ball out from under the car.

Then I had to gather up a boy from another third grade who has special needs.  He won't go in despite recess being over.  (He hates the sound of my whistle so my strategy is to tell him I'm about to blow my whistle and he runs to his teacher.)

When I finally made it into my room, my class was already inside, waiting for me.  A few boys were tossing their water balls into the air and not catching them (because they're 8 and not that coordinated).

I said, "I will take those bottles away.  You can survive a day without water.  If you want to keep the bottles, STOP THROWING THEM."

Everyone looked around like who is this mean lady?

Then one of my students needed three bandaids on her legs because she had fallen and scraped them (while playing basketball). 

I took my kids to PE.  There was a young male substitute teacher there who my students love.  He was holding a basketball and I thought it was a perfect opportunity for him to tell them not to kill each other while they are playing basketball at recess.  I thought they like him so much, they will listen.  I explained the situation to him and I asked him if he could talk to them during class about not being so...aggressive (we'll put it mildly).

He looked nervous, like I was accusing him of something.  He said, "We're only dribbling.  That's all we're doing."

"Never mind," I said.

It's Friday.  And I'm grateful.