Okay, we’re calling him Peter. The new guy.
Peter was actually at school today, though I was interested to see how long he would stay. Yesterday he left fairly early. He claimed he had chest pains. (I found out later that his brother has been sick 5 days now with chest pain. I’ll let you decide for yourself if Peter really had them, or if he just wanted to be home with his brother.)
It’s impossible to get Peter to produce any work. I put three language arts problems on the board for the class to do. One of them was to write one word to finish an analogy. Another problem was to split the word “copper” into syllables. The other was to write what the subject and predicate was in the sentence, “The tree fell.” All simple, right. Peter just couldn’t focus enough to write an answer. He was looking all over the class, looking in his desk. Anything but writing an answer. I had to tell him at least 3 times to write something down.
I swear, I had to redirect him every 5 minutes when he was in my room.
And you can believe he didn’t have his homework done.
We had a special safety assembly after lunch, in the library. All the 4th grade classes walked right up there. It was a big deal. I get my class sat down on the floor, take a seat in a chair, and look around to notice that – surprise – Peter isn’t there. I get up to tell the VP, thinking maybe he went to the office for some reason (he’s done that before). We step out of the library to find him, coming from the steps. The VP asks him where he’s been. He tells us he has been in the bathroom.
Recess had ended almost 20 minutes before that, and I remind him so. He just stares at me. I remind him that when the bell rings at the end of recess, that is the time to GET IN LINE, not go to the bathroom.
That kid is so frustrating. I keep telling myself that maybe I failed to inform him of that. But you know, all my other new students have picked up on that without my obvious reminders.
Then in the computer lab, he keeps falling out of his chair. The kids tell me he keeps playing with his chair. So after the second warning, I have him exit the math program he’s in, and have him come sit close to me, but on the floor. He sits down, and what happens? He starts laying down. I tell him to sit up. Then he starts to sit in a chair. I remind him to sit on the floor. Then he starts to play WITH THE CHAIR. I tell him to fold his hands and place them in his lap. He can’t even do that.
As we are walking out to the parking lot at the end of school, I tell him I need to talk with his mom. So we sit and wait, and she pulls up. As he gets in the back seat, I talk to mom through the front window, telling her of my frustrations with Peter. Mom informs me that he wasn’t on his meds today. What is up with that? Okay, the boy CANNOT learn when he is like this! He really needs to be oh his meds, the poor kid!
We’re in one of the lanes to pick up, so his mom tells him to shut the door. But he doesn’t. So as I’m talking, she peppers him with, “Peter, shut the door.” BUT HE NEVER DOES. So she keeps telling him to. After a while, I ask him to as well. But he doesn’t.
After I’ve said what I wanted, I with them a happy weekend and walk away. As i do, I can hear mom say, “No it isn’t, Peter.” I know she’s talking about the door being closed. So I turn around, and sure enough, it’s still open, just a crack. The front window is still open, so I shout, “Shut the door, Peter.”
He doesn’t.
Then the car begins to pull away, so I yell louder, “Shut the door, Peter!”
He doesn’t close it.
Then he OPENS THE DOOR and says goodbye to me. UNBELIEVABLE! So I shout as loud, and as mean as I can, “Shut the door, Peter!!”
He finally does.
I’m so glad the VP was standing to witness the whole thing.
I swear I had to redirect him every 5 minutes today.
Have I mentioned it’s going to be a long year?