Firsts

It's hard to believe that I've been teaching ten years, and I'm still thrown curveballs which are "first time experiences" for me. I always throught that I'd be done with firsts by this point in my teaching career...boy was I wrong! I have two stories to share.

Over the weekend, I was grading papers and came across a paper that left me scratching my head. The worksheet had some comprehension questions as well as some open-ended sort of questions. The question was "What did your Mom do when she was surprised at her cake?" The kid was supposed to pretend he was the kid in the story who had thrown Mom a surprise party. The response the student wrote: What are you &*%#ing doing?" Yep, a fourth grader putting in symbols for curse words! This was a first for me. I waited until the end of the day to share it with his regular education teacher and the student. He was immediately saddened by what he had done. That was the easy part for him though, when I walked him to his Mother, she read it and it was clear she would take care of it when they got home. Today he came into class with it re-done and an apology letter was there too. I'm glad he was responsible and took responsibility for his choices. Amazing stuff. I don't even want to know where he's seen that before to know how to write it like that...

And then today during Math class, I had a student bring me a note from another teacher about Renaldo's reading assignment that he needed to turn in today. I was a bit shocked at the letter since I had put the work IN HIS BACKPACK FOR HIM ON FRIDAY for him to take home and do over the weekend. I pulled out the workbook pages he was supposed to do...they weren't done. I just looked at Renaldo who gave me his standard, "I don't know what you're talking about" look. I was getting more mad by the second. I asked him to go get his daily planner that contains daily notes from his parents each day. I was a bit confused. Then I read the note from his parents, "The books weren't brought home so he couldn't do the work." I was floored. I PUT THE WORK IN HIS BAG ON FRIDAY! What do they mean it wasn't there for him to do? Renaldo just sat there. I asked him, "So, if it was in your bag on Friday, how did it get out of your bag before you got home?" He just sat there. Then I said, "Here's what I think, you took it out of your bag, and put it in your cubby so you wouldn't have homework over the weekend." He was mad, but didn't agree or deny to my theory.

We went down to the reading teacher, and explained my theory and he will receive a zero for the assignment. I walked out with Renaldo to explain to his parents what had happened. They supported our decision to give him a zero and made Renaldo come back in for the workbook so he could do it for homework. I told him he wouldn't get credit for it, and his parent stated that he didn't care, he needed to get the work done anyway. I was glad to hear that.

I still can't believe he did it! I've never had a kid dodge work like that! ARGH!

Tomorrow is a new day. And next week is break.

I can hardly wait!