Happy Halloween! Uh, I mean Fall!!

Yeah, we don't get to have holiday parties here at PA, but we are going to have a party nonetheless. Officially, it is a "Fall Party" but since all of my students do celebrate Halloween, it is definitely a Halloween themed party. We will have LOTS of snacks, a movie, a game, a craft, and an assembly to finish off the day. I have a parent coming in to help and I'm probably not nearly as planned as I need to be for it to go off without a hitch but I'm jumping in anyway and excited to see how it all falls down.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty regular week. It's felt really long since it's the first 5 day week since the last week of September, but I was prepared for that. And really, they haven't been that crazy or hyper about Halloween. I let them talk about it at certain times and otherwise they are content to just be their regular 5 year old selves. Which is still loud and silly and crazy but just not more so than usual. However, I am glad that the actual day of Halloween falls on a Saturday and they won't be spending it at school. It is the small things that I am grateful for these days. I am also almost completely recovered from my hacking cough. It's still there but I'm always careful to "catch" my germs so someone else doesn't! All the kids are back too and excited as ever to be at school. YIPPEE!

I will report that I had to write my first discipline referral this week. I probably had reason to do it before this and probably let a few more things slide than I should have, but there had to be a first. Now, it's done and over with and if it weren't for the fact that I am writing it here I probably wouldn't be able to tell you what my first referral was a year from now. On a side note, you should know that we have 2 kinds of referrals. An "Ooops Note" and a real hard core discipline referral. The Oops Note is a "I messed up and didn't make a great choice so I got in trouble" kind of note. It usually involves the teacher calling the parent and the student sitting out of recess or getting a timeout. The principal sees them but is not involved unless the teacher asks him to be. You might get one if you pushed and shoved in line, talked all day and couldn't shut up, did a cartwheel in the hallway, etc. Basically, anything that isn't violent, vulgar, or a repeated problem. Discipline referrals are handled by the principal with the teacher, parents, and student.

I wrote mine for a student who has been refusing to do anything in the classroom. It's power and attention issue for him, but after 3 Oops Notes for the same thing, I decided to step it up. It was little things like getting in line or moving to a center or washing his hands but he just outright refused to do whatever I asked him no matter what else I said or did. So, instead of picking him up and throwing him, I let Mr. E handle it because by the end of the day I had tried everything I could think of and didn't want the other students to think the he was winning and start to do some of the same to see what they could get away with. That is exactly NOT what I need: a classroom full of students who do whatever they want. Or a nightmare. Basically the same thing. In the end, I think it was definitely the right thing to do, and it did help because he was much better today. I only hope it stays that way and it doesn't become a routine problem. I'm sure more insight will come from Parent/Teacher conferences next week. Ooohh yeah.