Dysfunctional 3rd Grade

Spent the 2nd of 2 days with a 3rd grade class today. They are quite a group. Their teacher says they are the most dysfunctional class she has had in her roughly 30 years of teaching. Even the "good" kids have some sort of problem. Another 3rd grade teacher refers to them as "a handful".

To make things even worse, the lesson plans are rarely complete and usually difficult to read. Sometimes I just cannot figure out what her abbreviations are or decipher her handwriting. If it were someone else, I would turn down her requests for me to sub in her class. The trouble is that I feel a sense of loyalty and maybe even obligation because she seems to count on me to be there for her. With her being no spring chicken, I also have a soft spot in my heart for her. So I struggle through whatever she leaves me and do the best I can.

The biggest thing about this particular class is that they will not shut up. I would put that more diplomatically but nothing else conveys the idea with enough forcefulness. I tried nearly everything yesterday. With little success. I singled out kids for positive behavior. I had them move their clips down on the behavior chart, leading to lost recess time. I moved one kid to a back table. I awarded table points with candy! as a reward for the top point-earning team. I kept them all in for over half their recess to finish work that was unfinished due to their wasting time. I kept some of them in for the start of lunch to finish work that was unfinished due to their wasting time. I took away their PE because of their constant interruptions and their inability to SHUT UP! It didn't matter what I did. They either couldn't or wouldn't stop talking. In fact it is as if they are unaware that they are talking.

So today I started off with table points and moving people into corners...no nonsense. One student was sent outside. Another student was sent to another classroom. I continued with the candy bribe for the top 2 tables. The students continued to talk, to interrupt, and to be rude. But it was better. By most measures I would have considered today a failure, but given their usual behavior, I'm giving myself a pat on the back.

The result of this weeks sub jobs is the "Wish List".

Oh, almost forgot this: one of the boys was wearing a t-shirt today that read something like, "Bothering My Sister: It's What I Do" or "Born to Bother My Sister"!