I have to keep writing multiple posts in one day because my after-school time gets so hectic! Sorry about that. Yesterday I went straight from school to a coffee "date" with a teacher-now-friend, from there to pick up stuff from the store, then straight home to cook dessert for a dinner with friends. Whew!
I was given a choice in the morning: kindergarten or middle school gym. It's too early in the morning to make smart decisions, but I thought gym with pre-teens sounded horrific so I chose kindergarten. I assumed I'd have an aide with me all day who could help with kid management and the various lessons throughout the day.
When I arrived at school the aide wasn't there. She didn't arrive until 20 minutes after the kids. So I had get them in the door, jackets and backpacks put away, they had to get their breakfasts and sit at the table and eat. Me versus 17 kindergartners. Needless to say this was difficult. I didn't know any names and the teacher didn't leave me much in her plans for the day. I was relieved to see the aide walk in!
Breakfast had not gone well - a kid was throwing Trix everywhere, a girl dropped her entire cereal bowl full of milk on the floor, some boys were throwing straws at each other, and a table of girls kept tattling on each other and tugging at my sleeve to get me to pay attention. When morning meeting started (this is when each kid has a job, like reading the date or telling us what the weather is like - it involves a lot of singing) there were several children that I could tell were going to be real problems. A particular boy, D, ran around the room trying to avoid sitting in the circle. He shot his fake gun at me and ran around, saying "no". It was not fun. Eventually he had a long piece of paper in his hand, the border from a display board I think, and he whipped a girl in the face with it. I immediately got the principal and he was sent home.
The kids all went to music (thank goodness) and I found out that the aide is part-time and would be leaving at 12pm, leaving me alone with 17 kids for two and half hours. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to gather my thoughts at that point and brainstorm some ideas to keep the kids from killing me.
The rest of the day was similar to the above description. One girl, W, didn't want to do a thing I asked her to do. She flashed all of the kids over and over again and kept talking about her breasts. She talked through all of the lessons and got the other kids in trouble. Another kid, C, didn't want to do anything I asked either. He chose to scream and cry through half the day. He actually fell asleep during story time and when I woke him up bawled his eyes out for a good 10 minutes.
I took them out to recess after lunch and prayed they would get some of the jitters out. It didn't really work and riled them up instead of calming them down. By the end of the day I was ready to pull my hair out. The room was a mess because none of them would clean anything up and I barely got them all out the door. When I met my friend for a coffee I got a huge pastry to calm my nerves.
Every other kindergarten experience has been sort of fun and I'm really sad that I had such a difficult day yesterday.
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