"Nothing is about to 'go down'!"

It was great to have a day off this Monday, but it was yet another rough week.  I will just tell you how my Friday ended and hope that gives you an adequate picture of the impulsiveness of my students.

My neighboring teacher who switches classes with me had to leave school about 20 minutes early, but this was not going to be any problem because our classes would be at recess at the end of the day.  We both led our classes outside to the very large playground area, and she assured me that the other teachers should be coming out with their classes as well to help me monitor the kids.  During our very limited time at recess, students came up to me with reports of two of my girls fighting.  I went to talk to both of them, doing my best to avoid the audience of about 20 very curious 4th graders.  Sadly enough, neither of the girls are very trustworthy and had very different accounts of what had happened.

It was soon time to go inside, and that is when I realized that no other 4th grade teachers had come to recess.  This left me with the task of lining up 50 4th graders to re-enter the building quietly and head to two different places for dismissal.  Once I could see one line of students heading the right direction towards some other teachers, I walked with the other stream of students down a different hallway.  6th grade was walking past us down where our two hallways met.  As I got closer, I realized that one of the 6th grade girls had just been informed that her younger sister had been crying on the playground.  She was getting heated saying, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh NO!!"  I was sure she knew exactly who the other girl was, as that girl had just turned with a wildly fearful look on her face.  The 6th grader started to wag her finger in the air and move her head back and forth with extreme attitude while announcing, "It's about to go down!"

At this moment there were too many kiddos clumped in the hallway, seemingly drawn in by the excitement.  I happened to be the only teacher within view and was just so sick of hearing kids throwing threats around.  I put my own finger up in a scolding manner and said very sternly and loudly above the commotion, "Nothing is about to 'go down'!  You 6th graders go that way, us 4th graders are going this way - let's move."

It scares me how often problems like these arise, and I do my best to play peacemaker.  The good news is, my students are choosing to come to me quietly to report incidents rather than loudly accusing people across the room, which is what they used to do.  I am definitely anxious to see the progress we are hopefully to make by the end of the year!  May God infiltrate His presence in my classroom - we need Him so badly!