Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A 2nd grader wrote that? (1st year story)

1st year story:

As you may recall from other posts, my first year I had a 2nd grade gifted and talented class. They were violent, disrespectful, and constantly disruptive. They were also not gifted and talented.

I intercept a note between two students. J is the writer of the note. I slip it into my back pocket and continue talking to the class making no further acknowledgement of the note. I forget about it and the day ends. I go home. I empty my pockets out at home and remember the note. This is what it said:

Fucin bich mom fuc
suckt my dic

This was so weird. This boy came into the class in September a very quiet boy. He would not get involved in the fights in class; he pretty much kept to himself. Yet, I found him starting to hang out with the violent kids during lunch. It seemed like he was starting to act up to get accepted by them. I knew his mom pretty well. He was an ELL and I knew Spanish. The mom felt comfortable communicating with me and was always very sweet and respectful. I was pretty baffled by this note, but I felt it was probably some way that J was trying to gain acceptance from most of the class of violent kids (I only had 8 girls in the class and about 16 boys). I still thought I should report it. You never know.

The next day I brought it to the attention of the lead guidance counselor. I verbally told him about it- asking him for advice. He shook me off and said, "You can leave the note in my box if you want. But, he didn't do anything. I'm not really concerned with the what ifs. I don't know what you expect, but I'm not planning on doing anything with it." And that was that. I put the note in his box, but nothing came of it. I didn't know how to handle it myself being a first year teacher. I felt it would have been so weird to bring it to the attention of his mom. I looked like a 16 year old and I coudln't see myself talking to his mom about it. So I left it alone.

Now looking back, I would confront the kid and ask him about it. Reprimand him for passing notes during class, and for writing such vulgar language. He would get punished based on his actions and based on the rules and consequences already stated in the classroom. But, before the discipline, I think I would speak to the boy about the content of the note. Then go from there. If the boy refused to tell me anything, I would then bring it to the attention of the mom and discipline him in class.

1 comment:

Angela Watson said...

Isn't it bizarre what kids write in the notes they pass? I don't remember EVER seeing that stuff when I was in elementary school. 'Stoopid' was the worst word we used.