First Day Back and An Excellent Old Story

Today was the first day back from vacation and it went really well, odd for a change in routine for the kids. Being that this was a good day I feel like I should tell you about one of my first days at my school...

There is a student at my school who is in first grade and is known only by his first name. If you teach at a school with over 1,000 kids you know that only a truly notorious child will be known in grades k-6 by his first name. We can call him Ed and say that he is a very special child. As a substitute I had my fingers crossed that he would be alright and on this particular day he was behaving himself nicely all morning. I was really impressed so I suggested to his other teacher, they team teach in this class, that we go outside and let the kids play before they went to Art. Taking into account the beautiful fall weather we thought that this was a great idea, ahh how wrong innocent ideas can go. The whole class ventured outside and played for about 15 minutes. When it is time to go inside Eddie is NOT having it. He flatly refused to go inside and told me in no uncertain terms to f-off.

When I persisted with my best classroom management and my strongest teacher voice he decided that this was unpleasant and he wanted to leave, and not just leave the playground, but why not go for broke and go stand on the sidewalk. Needless to say I was a bit freaked out at this point. Imagine, you are a teacher now staring at a child who is not only running away from you but who is now venturing off school property and into the actual non-school world. Clearly now I am prepping for a heart attack and all that I have learned in college is coming up alarmingly short. I have told one of the kids to go get the other teacher and have her call an administrator while I as inconspicuously as possible, try to follow Eddie who is now venturing down the street. Oh yes, down the street in my "very urban" school district at one o'clock in the afternoon. Great. Here comes Miss X down the road in her wedges, hiding like Jane Bond at every door way and trying to outsmart a six year old. Can you say "Four years of college for this?" It wasn't comical at the time but it is pretty amusing now. As it turns out I ended up chasing Eddie into someones backyard at which time a police officer, my administrator, and two support staff members returned the child to school kicking and screaming, literally. This was by no means my last interaction with the student who you too will get to know and love. Hope my story was good for a laugh and that you keep checking in for more updates!