During the summer I lose all appreciation for Fridays. Every day is Friday during the summer, especially when summer school is finished. Today, however, deep into the fall trimester and heading into winter, every Friday is the best day of my life.
I had an interaction with a student today that I taught this summer. He's a nice kid, but he has no filter, no boundries, no idea of what's appropriate or not. I like him a lot because he's funny and smart, but since he knows that I like him, he feels like he can joke around with me like we're friends. Today he pointed a yardstick at my head, about two inches away from my temple, and asked me if I was "smoking reefer." I looked at him and asked if I needed to write him up. The smile disappeared from his face, was replaced with panic, and he said quickly "I was just kidding!" I walked away from him.
It's hard to train kids how to talk to adults. I know that he thought he was being funny, and that he thought that I would think it was funny. But, it's important to teach kids the boundries that they need. Of course, sitting at home tonight, I feel badly about threatening to write him up, even though I know I did exactly the right thing. I'm weird, I know. Do kids appreciate it when a teacher is a hard ass? I don't know.
What I do know is that today is Friday and I've had my nap and my dinner and am now sitting by the fireplace in the Great Red Chair of Sleep watching Gordon Ramsay and writing my word quota for NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. And I'm happy.
1 comment:
You did absolutely the right thing. Much like being a parent, we have to do things with kids we don't necessarily like, but in the grand scheme of things (with us being part of the hand that shapes them into young adults), it has to be done. They will know we had a hard time with it once they are in the same situation when they are adults.
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