Crazy Days!

This week I had a couple of crazy days! Tuesday I had the grade 1/2 class that I've had before that can some times be wonderful and other times be real hard to teach. Unfortunately they seemed to be very worked up and to add to things there was a 4th year uni student in the room. Which meant I was supposed to be there to supervise the uni student doing all the teaching (sounds so easy lol) but I felt for the poor girl as I could see the classes behaviour getting worse and worse; and before I knew it the teacher in me was coming out and I stepped in to settle them down a few times. They really are a nice class, they are just young and very chatty and a bit cheeky. And they were nothing compared to the class I had on Wednesday!
On Wednesday I was at a different school teaching a grade three class that I have also previously taught. Of course when they called to book me they didn't want to say which grade three class it was until I got there. I knew that was a bad sign! It was one of those days where whatever the worse is you could imagine happening in a classroom - happened to me that one day! The bell rang in the morning they came and sat down for the roll but half the boys decided to hit and swear at each other and backchat me (all within the first few mins of the day!) We then went to parade where on the way one boy (who thankfully spent the majority of the day at SEU!) decided to hit everyone near him and swear at me repeatedly. After that we came back to do some maths, again half the boys decided to act like rude idiots; fighting and swearing at me, so I sent them to the office and gave them detention (which they thought was funny). The principal came down and 'chatted' with them, they in turn back-chatted to him. Before lunch I thought I would be nice and play a game with them but every time they went to sit on the floor the boys were physically fighting each other. So I sent the whole class back to their desks and tried another three times and each time they kept fighting so I made them return to doing their work. After first break they came in more worked up then ever and half the class wouldn't work so I called the office and had some of the boys sent up their and had an aide come into the room to help me (they were rude to her too) and we got a little bit of work done. Half way through lunch I had to call them over the announcements to get them so I could take them swimming. They had been looking forward to this all day so you think they would behave for this but no. They wouldn't sit down, be quiet or keep their hands to themselves. Also the SEU boy that swore at me was back with the class with an SEU teacher to watch him. She was getting angry at the class and they wouldn't even listen to her. The swimming pool is at the high school next to the primary school and takes less than 5mins to get their. But from the time I made the announcement to the time we finally got their (walking with them was hell!) it took over half an hour! But at least I could hand them over to the PE teacher and relax a bit. Watching their lesson was ridiculous though, they were so rude and disobedient to their regular PE teacher that he kicked half them out of the pool. After their lesson it took them 20mins for them to get changed which meant we had to race back to school before the bell went which of course meant a lot of hitting and swearing at each other on the way. These are 8 year olds by the way. Ohh and how could I forget one incident where a boy refusing to do his work decided to cut up his work book and ended up cutting his finger and complaining to me he was bleeding, yeah I was real concerned. Not.
I talked with the teachers I worked with that day, the aid and the principal who all said it wasn't me (after seeing the PE teacher being treated the way he was I know it is true) but they are just a rude challenging class in general and their normal teacher struggles with them. I am just thankful I could walk away and not have to teach them again (and I won't be!). I don't know how anyone could put up with that time of behaviour on a daily basis and still be sane. If that was any other school in the area and children behaved that way there would be serious consequences for them. I don't see how the school can accept that behaviour. And to tell me they struggle to find relief teachers; you wonder why!!!
Miss Snix.