Saturday, November 01, 2008

Social Hour...

The 5th graders have "social hour" on Friday afternoons. This is really just a glorified name for recess. I guess it makes them feel more mature to call it social hour. Anyway, it is also part of the discipline plan, and the teachers can take away the privilege of social hour for various infractions in the classroom, including misbehavior and failure to complete homework. Since I have started teaching, I now have the ability to take away social hour privileges if I deem it necessary. Today, one of my students felt she needed to clarify just exactly why I took away her social hour. This was her question: "Mrs. Bell, do I have to sit out at social hour because I was cheating, or because I was talking during class?" Really? Did she really need to ask me that? Shouldn't she know that BOTH cheating AND talking during class are not allowed?!?! She definitely should have known after I had to give her conduct checks EVERY DAY THIS WEEK for laughing, talking, talking back, and one day for cheating!!!! Oh, but it wasn't her fault that she was cheating (that's what she told me today anyway). I still haven't figured out how you can accidentally cheat. Any ideas on that one? Oh, and another boy got in trouble for sleeping during class. Apparently that wasn't his fault either. 5th graders come up with some great stories and excuses for why they're misbehaving. They generally don't deny the fact that they were doing something wrong, but boy can they spin a tale as to why they were doing it!! They're very creative...it's pretty impressive really.

I start my 2 weeks of teaching on Monday. This means that I'm in charge of all of the classes, by myself for 2 straight weeks. It should be interesting, but I think it will be fun. Definitely a good learning experience. I have a lot of fun activities planned, so hopefully the kids will cooperate and we'll get to do them!! Well, it's late and I'm sleepy. I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We call our "Social Hour" Free Break Friday. Luckily it only last for about 20 minutes. They get to go out and have an extra recess. I can't believe you guys get an hour each Friday. How do they count that into the instrutional time? Aren't you amazed at how easy they question authority. I have a great class of 1st graders and I am enjoying every minute because you never know what is coming around the bend. Just hang on for 2 more weeks!

T. Brodie said...

Who needs a social hour anyways?! Hang in there- you're almost done! Yay for you!

Matt & Lori said...

Well, they call it Social Hour, but it's really only 40 minutes (or less if they need more teaching time). I don't think the students realize it's not really an hour!