A Long Three-Day Week

Long especially when you consider I was at an appointment for half the day on Thursday and at an inservice for half the day today. Actually I thought I would be in the inservice for the entire day due to a miscommunication, which kinda pissed me off because I didn't find this out in time to have "real" lesson plans for the afternoon (as opposed to the idiot-proof ones I left for the sub). Oh well. The inservice was with a rep from the publishing company who was showing us all the bells and whistles in our new literature books.

Apparently there was plenty of drama this morning though, and even more this afternoon. One of the PITA kids who is constantly getting into trouble because of his refusal to follow the rules got in trouble for throwing things at the sub (not the one in my room, thankfully). We've heard rumors that this was the straw that broke the camel's back and that he has now been kicked out of school, but these are just rumors at this point. I can't imagine throwing something at an adult at the age of 12 though. I don't know what he was throwing--it wasn't big stuff like desks or something, but the fact that he was targeting the sub scares me a little.

In the same room later on, a girl was caught with a rather large plastic knife in her binder. I didn't see it myself, but apparently it was pretty realistic. We have a zero tolerance policy on look-alike weapons, so I don't know how that will all pan out (it happened at the very end of the day). I have had many, many kids turned in for weapons possession throughout my career. It does make me feel a bit safer that kids almost always tell someone that they have a weapon (usually they're showing off), and that they almost always get ratted out.

We also had a parent go after a student who had been making fun of her daughter. Like, physically went after her. And the student was going to take her on! Apparently there had been a name-calling incident earlier in the day which resulted in some blows being exchanged, which of course led to referrals. So Mom was pretty hot when she found this out and decided to defend her daughter by instigating a smackdown in the cafeteria after school. Luckily four of the middle school teachers were there so we were able to separate the combatants before it got too out of control. There's never a dull moment!