Whoops
Afternoon homeroom is a notoriously chaotic time in my room. It always seems like kids need to go back to their lockers or ask me another question or talk to another teacher or go to the bathroom or track down a lost sweatshirt or just generally be an eleven year old, and the timing sucks because I'm trying to get everyone organized to go home and make any announcements for the next day. Plus, the kids are cooked, and the little patience I probably had at the beginning of the day is pretty much sapped. It's a pretty bad combination.
As a disclaimer, before we go any further, the name of the kid has been changed!
On Tuesday afternoon, we were experiencing the normal chaos, and I made a quick announcement reminding the kids that picture day was the next day so they should dress up and look nice.
One of the kids came up to me afterwards. "So I'm going to dress up tomorrow, right?" he asked.
"Yup," I told him.
He stared at me, blankly. "So... I'm going to dress up tomorrow then."
"Yes," I told him. Slight edge to the voice.
He repeated his question for a third time, this time very slow and deliberate with each word. "I'm. Going. To. Dress. Up. Tomorrow?"
"YES," I said, just as slowly, and I actually turned and walked away from him, my patience completely gone. Did he not hear me? I made some general announcement to the class that people need to listen the first time because I hate repeating directions. I felt bad losing my patience and walking away, because this kid is one of the nicest kids. He's this pudgy kid who doesn't say much but brings snacks to class parties and generally seems sort of happy to be here. He's in special education, so he's a little behind in getting directions. But three times to repeat the same question seemed excessive.
The next morning, I realized why he had repeated his question so many times to me.
As the kids came up for their morning homeroom time on picture day, this kid arrived in a full-on spandex Spiderman suit.
He came up to me, and I stifled a laugh. "Oh my god," I said.
"I asked YOU," he just said flatly.
"Oh my god," I repeated.
"This is the worst day of my life," he said dejectedly and walked away. "My mom's gonna kill me when she sees my picture!"
He had paid in advance, $20, for the picture package. I could only imagine his mother getting her wallet-sized pictures of this guy stuffed into his Spiderman suit. I felt awful. The kids weren't horrible to him, but still. How embarrassing.
All day, when I saw him, he just shook his head sadly. I tried to find him some extra clothes from the nurse's office, but apparently an admittedly ratty flannel shirt is worse than a Spiderman suit. I told him he could wear his jacket around the school, so with the heat on full blast, he walked around in a winter jacket and a spandex suit, sweating his poor ass off. I think he gave up at some point and just resigned himself to his fate.
I tried to make him feel better, but really, how can you? So I was set on getting him his money back. This turned out to be a little bit of a process. They told me they'd have his money for him on Thursday and he could take a make-up picture in January when everyone came back. This seemed like a good idea, even if the emotional scarring damage had probably been done.
Thursday when I arrived at school though, there was no $20 from the photo people (they'd decided to mail the check back to me to hold onto until January) and I didn't have enough cash on me. So I bought him an ice cream at lunch in the meantime. Not really going to fix anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt.
I was still feeling totally awful about this entire debacle, because the poor kid just seemed pretty dejected (and who wouldn't?!). After school though, I was helping a bunch of the kids with our fundraiser. We had sold "Boo Bags" that kids could buy for $1 each. A Boo Bag is a bag of candy that kids bought to be delivered to friends and teachers on Halloween. Yesterday we had to all get together to make all the bags and get them ready for delivery.
"Hey Miss," one of the girls helping called out. "Look who got you a Boo Bag!"
I went over and saw that the kid had gotten me a Boo Bag. The message on the card said: "hi miss c... even though you kind of ruined my life yesterday you still my best teacher. thanks for the ice cream but my mom says i need to loose wait because my spiderman suit almost didnt fit me. ps you will be a good mom someday cause i was real upset yesterday you made me smile a lot and think how it wasnt the end of the world (even though it kind of was)."
This made me laugh and feel sort of better about the whole thing, and I thought that all was well that ended (sort of) well. Then this morning, the kids showed up in their costumes.
One of the kids in my homeroom showed up in the same Spiderman suit that the original kid, Pierre, had worn Wednesday.
"Another Spiderman guy, huh?" I asked him.
"No," he deadpanned. "I'm Pierre on Picture Day."
As a disclaimer, before we go any further, the name of the kid has been changed!
On Tuesday afternoon, we were experiencing the normal chaos, and I made a quick announcement reminding the kids that picture day was the next day so they should dress up and look nice.
One of the kids came up to me afterwards. "So I'm going to dress up tomorrow, right?" he asked.
"Yup," I told him.
He stared at me, blankly. "So... I'm going to dress up tomorrow then."
"Yes," I told him. Slight edge to the voice.
He repeated his question for a third time, this time very slow and deliberate with each word. "I'm. Going. To. Dress. Up. Tomorrow?"
"YES," I said, just as slowly, and I actually turned and walked away from him, my patience completely gone. Did he not hear me? I made some general announcement to the class that people need to listen the first time because I hate repeating directions. I felt bad losing my patience and walking away, because this kid is one of the nicest kids. He's this pudgy kid who doesn't say much but brings snacks to class parties and generally seems sort of happy to be here. He's in special education, so he's a little behind in getting directions. But three times to repeat the same question seemed excessive.
The next morning, I realized why he had repeated his question so many times to me.
As the kids came up for their morning homeroom time on picture day, this kid arrived in a full-on spandex Spiderman suit.
He came up to me, and I stifled a laugh. "Oh my god," I said.
"I asked YOU," he just said flatly.
"Oh my god," I repeated.
"This is the worst day of my life," he said dejectedly and walked away. "My mom's gonna kill me when she sees my picture!"
He had paid in advance, $20, for the picture package. I could only imagine his mother getting her wallet-sized pictures of this guy stuffed into his Spiderman suit. I felt awful. The kids weren't horrible to him, but still. How embarrassing.
All day, when I saw him, he just shook his head sadly. I tried to find him some extra clothes from the nurse's office, but apparently an admittedly ratty flannel shirt is worse than a Spiderman suit. I told him he could wear his jacket around the school, so with the heat on full blast, he walked around in a winter jacket and a spandex suit, sweating his poor ass off. I think he gave up at some point and just resigned himself to his fate.
I tried to make him feel better, but really, how can you? So I was set on getting him his money back. This turned out to be a little bit of a process. They told me they'd have his money for him on Thursday and he could take a make-up picture in January when everyone came back. This seemed like a good idea, even if the emotional scarring damage had probably been done.
Thursday when I arrived at school though, there was no $20 from the photo people (they'd decided to mail the check back to me to hold onto until January) and I didn't have enough cash on me. So I bought him an ice cream at lunch in the meantime. Not really going to fix anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt.
I was still feeling totally awful about this entire debacle, because the poor kid just seemed pretty dejected (and who wouldn't?!). After school though, I was helping a bunch of the kids with our fundraiser. We had sold "Boo Bags" that kids could buy for $1 each. A Boo Bag is a bag of candy that kids bought to be delivered to friends and teachers on Halloween. Yesterday we had to all get together to make all the bags and get them ready for delivery.
"Hey Miss," one of the girls helping called out. "Look who got you a Boo Bag!"
I went over and saw that the kid had gotten me a Boo Bag. The message on the card said: "hi miss c... even though you kind of ruined my life yesterday you still my best teacher. thanks for the ice cream but my mom says i need to loose wait because my spiderman suit almost didnt fit me. ps you will be a good mom someday cause i was real upset yesterday you made me smile a lot and think how it wasnt the end of the world (even though it kind of was)."
This made me laugh and feel sort of better about the whole thing, and I thought that all was well that ended (sort of) well. Then this morning, the kids showed up in their costumes.
One of the kids in my homeroom showed up in the same Spiderman suit that the original kid, Pierre, had worn Wednesday.
"Another Spiderman guy, huh?" I asked him.
"No," he deadpanned. "I'm Pierre on Picture Day."
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