It's been a while since I've written a post, but it's been a busy few months for me. Here's a little update. At the end of the previous school year the assistant principal job became available. After much thought I decided to apply for the job. I was fortunate enough to get the position, and luckily I am still teaching as well! I teach a section each of 6th and 7th grade math.
I was worried I wouldn't have enough funny stories to continue the blog, but I was wrong! Unfortunately, the first month and a half of a new job along with way too many fall weddings left me with little time. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I can get back to sharing some of the stories that keep me (and hopefully you) smiling.
Part of my job involves talking to those kids that get sent to the principal's office. Which makes sense because I am a principal... So far, this part of my job is definitely my least favorite. Today's experience wasn't fun, but it did have a moment that I couldn't help but smile about.
Tommy's teacher asked me to talk to Tommy about his behavior at recess. The previous day a recess supervisor had to ask Tommy, a 4th grader, to stop going up to girls and spanking them. Apparently this hadn't been the first time Tommy had to be asked to stop spanking his classmates.
When Tommy first got to my office we went through why he needed to see me. I explained to him that while he may have thought it was funny to spank the girls, it was an inappropriate thing to do. He expressed that he knew what he did was wrong and that he wouldn't do it anymore.
So I asked him: 'So you realize what you did was wrong?'
'Yes, I know it was wrong. I won't do it ever again.'
'Do you know why it was wrong?'
'Yes, because it was inappropriate.'
'Why was it inappropriate?'
'Because I will get in really big trouble if I do it again.'
'Yes Tommy, we talked about you having consequences if you do it again, but why will you get in trouble?'
'Cause it was inappropriate.'
'(Sigh) Yes, what causes it to be inappropriate?'
'Well, you get in trouble. Big trouble.'
'Tommy. Why is it wrong?'
'(After a slight hesitation) cause it's inappropriate?'
The circular conversation continued for a bit long before I finally explained not only why spanking is inappropriate, but what the word inappropriate means.
