Why Do I Do This, Again?

I'm not even sure I can explain the last two days.

I was working in a kindergarten classroom. I was requested for the assignment. I have no idea who requested me. I worked in the preschool at this campus for two weeks while the teacher was on jury duty, but the preschool is pretty isolated from the rest of the campus. Perhaps the office manager just saw that I'd worked there before and put my number in. Whatever the case, I'm grateful to be personally requested, even though the two day assignment was one of the most trying I've had.

First thing, when I picked up the kids in the morning on the playground, I heard from behind me, "Cool! Maybe we can just play all day!" Oh, boy. The class had twice as many boys as girls, and 20 of the 24 kids caused non-stop problems. Even after going over the rules, they proceeded to run in the classroom, run instead of walk in line, yell across the room, hit, crawl around the floor, and talk, talk, talk. Several times each day I brought them together to review their classroom rules. All of the kids could recite the rules, yet only 4 actually followed the rules.

One boy whose desk had been moved away from the rest because of excessive talking, did not let the distance stop him. He just yelled across the room to his friends. This boy also yelled out to me about how to do everything, gave his opinions on everything, told me it was time for lunch and recess (about an hour before each) and just yelled to hear his own voice. He never stopped talking and complained to me that his friends didn't let him get in a word. Oy....the life his poor mother must lead!

I tried everything in the classroom management book. Rewarded my few listeners with valued "tickets," gave them extra privileges, wrote names on the board, took away recess, put kids in time out, the whole shebang. Nothing worked. They were even yelled at by the librarian! I quieted them all down before walking in to the library. I asked them at the door how we are supposed to behave in the library, got the expected "no talking" response and then they all ran into the library talking and yelling. The librarian told me that it's just the combination of kids and that they're pretty much always like this. I doubt that, but I'm sure the behavior for their regular teacher is only a minor improvement. Their teacher did come in at the very end of the day, and asked the kids how they were while she was gone. They told her "good." She asked them how I would say they were, and their response was, "bad." So clearly they know there were expectations and they chose not to meet those expectations. I tried to put a positive spin on it and tell her that "we had our moments," but she told me she knows how they are and that she doesn't like to scare subs with information before they even get started.

I'm so glad every day isn't like these past two!