Troubles at Recess

You remember Timmy?  Well, let me introduce you to “Jimmy.”  Jimmy is a “special needs” student of mine.  If you met him, you might not pick up on that.  You might think he’s a little odd, but that’s about it.  If you spent time with him, you might guess he has some special needs.  But he is very, very normal.

Jimmy has many friends, and even a few good friends.  But the problem is, Jimmy plays with a group of boys who often end up not getting along.  Timmy is one of those boys.  So is Billy.

Well, yesterday, apparently Jimmy was sick and tired of Billy being so bossy.  And Billy was tired of Jimmy making the group only do what he wanted to do.  The playground supervisors let me know that there is trouble again with these to. (Yes, there has been trouble between them before, but they always manage to bury the hatchet and play together.)

These guys just can’t seem to get along with each other for too long.  Maybe they should be in different classes next year.

Timmy

I have another student in my class.  We’ll call him “Timmy.”  Between Billy and Timmy, my year has been . . . challenging at times.  Timmy is a very nice boy.  He’s also well below grade level, and his dad speaks very broken English.  I think his mom speaks only Spanish.  So you can guess Timmy’s English isn’t the best.

As I was letting my class get drinks in the classroom (we had just come back from “Gold Rush” practice), I noticed Timmy lingering at the drinking fountain.  I told him that his table had already got a drink and that he needs to sit down, but he just kept drinking, for like 5 more seconds!  I was furious!

Now, I didn’t realize this, but Timmy’s table had just been called to get a drink.  And Timmy was the last person at his table to get a drink.  So technically, I was wrong.  He had permission to get a drink.  So I felt bad about asking him to sit down.  But the fact remained that I had given him directions and he ignored me.  You just can’t do that.  If I ask you to sit down and you are still haven’t had a chance to get a drink yet, stop drinking and explain to me that you haven’t had a chance.  Don’t ignore me.

I think it’s hard when I make a mistake, but the student does as well.  I always try to make sure I admit my mistakes to the class.  It’s sometimes embarrassing, and sometimes I feel really bad about the mistakes I have made.  There’s nothing worse than punishing a student, and then after the punishment finding out I was wrong and the student was innocent.  That sucks!

But even when I am wrong, if the student has not followed directions, the student needs to face a consequence for that decision.