An Off Day for MotorMouth

Today was an unusually rough day in my classroom. I think I remember seeing that this Friday is a full moon. Perhaps not, but it sure felt like it in my little corner of the world today.

It started with MotorMouth purposely not coming to meet me for his morning time in the swing, after I had just said, "Yeah, you can go to the restroom, meet me down in the room." He never showed. I was a bit miffed. I know him well enough to know he purposely didn't come down. He knew it too when I found him a while later and said, "That's a behavior check for not coming down." He replied with something about thinking he was too late. Yeah, well, I just looked at him and got the frown look from him. I let it go. He got the message.

When he came to my class for reading/writing/math stuff, he would not be quiet. I kept saying, "please, work and be quiet." He would be quiet for a little while and then start back up. I was spent a lot of my time wondering if it was just me or if he was really bad today. I determined it was him because I was fine with all the other kids. Then he came down this afternoon...

I was letting the kids stay in during second recess to get their work done so they wouldn't have so much homework. He. would. not. shut. up. I was getting frustrated.

It didn't help that earlier in the day it was determined that he can't walk alone in the halls so he's not allowed to go anywhere alone. Yeah, the teacher the imposed that rule wasn't thinking how much that was going to make my life harder...

So we were working this afternoon and I had had it. I turned to him and said, "Go for a walk and get a drink of water." He then reminded me that he couldn't walk alone in the halls. I was even more frustrated then. So, I asked a student to walk him when another teacher walked in and I said, "Can you do me a favor and take him for a walk? I need 30 seconds of silence." She saw I was tired and said sure. I enjoyed the silence. He came back in and worked. Not completely silently, but it was a little better.

I walked him up to the entrance of the school at the end of the day and asked Grandpa if meds had changed. He said no.

I REALLY REALLY hope tomorrow is better. Spring time isn't easy for teachers.

And with Motormouth in the fifth grade, this is going to be an interesting end to the school year.

Later.