Children can be sneaky...

Today was a great day... for the most part! YAY! The best part was that it was half day for our children. They got their report cards and were dismissed at noon; the teachers had a break until 3:30 when parent/ teacher conferences started. My day was hectic, but we got every part of the day into those few short hours we had this morning! Go me!! I combined social studies and ELA today and they really seemed to enjoy that! During math, my excitement began...

I was teaching more about regrouping and we were all on the carpet together doing a hands- on approach to learn how to regroup with 2- digit addition. there was only about 10 minutes left before lunch, recess and dismissal when one of my little boys says, "Ms. Robinson! N has smarties in her pocket!". I asked her if this was true and she told me no, all the while her hand was shoved deep into her pocket and she wouldn't bring it out for me too see. I asked her several times to let me see what was in her hand and she kept looking at the ground and digging deeper into her pocket. Finally, my coaching teacher intervened and told her that she had to the count of 3 to empty her pockets or she was going to see the ISS teacher. I counted to 3 and on 3 she pulled 3 empty smarties wrappers and some smarties dust fell out of her pocket as well. She had stolen them from the shelf next to the rocking chair. I had bought them as rewards for smart choices in our classroom. I had to write her up and she had to hold my hand all afternoon because every time I briefly turned my back she was doing something she knows is not allowed; such as eating dessert before eating her lunch, or kicking the wall at recess. I had to write a referral for her as well as an attachment of the other happenings that day. It was hard, but I did it and took the time to re- write the referral several times. I learned today that I can be taken advantage of. I must say that when this happened, I lost a lot of faith in my classroom. I had felt very lucky that all semester I hadn't really worried about having anything stolen from me- apparently I was being naive. My heart broke in half- as did the rest of my children's because she ruined these nice things that I do for my children.

My first experience with conferences went well. I learned a lot about my children and their home lives and it was insightful to learn about them and their lives in order to better understand them in the classroom. I am hoping to be able to use this information in my teaching so I can better teach each child in my class. I was not nervous about talking to parents, I was strangely calm actually. I think that I felt confident in what I know about each of the children and that helped to feel more confident about talking to their parents.

The ray of sunshine today was when we were out at recess and R didn't feel like playing, so he hung out with me and L. He told me, "I have changed Ms. Robinson. I am good now." This was so wonderful to hear. He was never "bad" but he got in trouble a lot and since he made the decision to be good he has been making much better grades! I told him that he needs to stay that way until he's old and gray and can't walk anymore!

Oh children... they are wonderful and always full of surprises!