What is it that seems to happen to otherwise well-behaved children come the month of October? Is it the change in the weather, or perhaps the crispness of the cool fall air that causes them to GO HOGWILD??? We were doing so good. So, so good. Rules explained and taught. Practiced. Role-Played. Expectations laid out, clear, concise, kids following them and doing a great job, week after week after week.
Until now, that is. Something happened to them all today. Today, they all (ohhhh, just about all 25 of them or so) decided that rules were suggestions and that teachers were buddies who somehow understood their sudden lack of restraint… After about my second class of chaotic-acting kids, I was pretty much exhausted and wondering what the heck happened to my classroom structure???
And then a funny thing happened. The weather cleared up and the October chill lifted, yielding a beautiful, springlike fall day. So I opened my classroom window. In wafted the sounds of happy children playing on the blacktop, enjoying the excitement of the soon-coming weekend. In also wafted the sounds of teachers – wonderful, hard-working, way, way more experienced-than-me teachers – who had finally had their fill of kids going haywire. I heard countless times as classes passed by my open window…”What is this? Why is everyone acting so inappropriately? This is not what you all were taught in our classroom!” … and “Excuse me, but did we just for-geeettt all our rules all of a sudden? You all know we don’t act like this! What in the world is going on?”
And suddenly, I began to feel better.
I realized that it’s not just because I’m a brand-new teacher who somehow must have failed miserably with the classroom management plan that I thought was working well up until now. No, I’ve still got lots of learning to do. But it’s not all me.
It’s just October.
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