"Watch out for little problems that could get a lot bigger."
As I looked down at her smiling face I instantly knew that she was going to be my very own little problem for the afternoon.
Thanks for the warning, Confucius...
But, I am unsure if she was just particularly trying because I thought she was going to be, or if that is just a part of her personality. The most difficult thing about this job is trying to make sure that a child or class does not become what someone has told you they might. If I walk in to a room with the lingering thought that I am going to be spending the day with a bunch of hellions, chances are they will morph into what I am expecting them to be.
So, my little angel this afternoon- truly a problem child or a self fulfilling prophecy?
Some time after the glue was covering the table, the snack was on the floor, and the marker was up her nose but before she broke the tape player, ripped the book pages, and knocked over the center bucket, I decided that she really was a problem child.
My biggest issue came when she and two other students needed to walk themselves to the classroom where they get their reading tutoring. The directions I was given stated that I was to send the three children to the classroom, and that they would walk themselves there and back.
Which is not what happened.
They made a pit stop in the parking lot where the third graders were visiting the ice cream truck, and they tried to go to see my little friend's brother in first grade.
Not great.
When they were returned to me by a very upset volunteer, I was faced with the problem of what I should do. Of course I knew the regular classroom procedures involving discipline but, in my opinion, this transgression was worthy of a punishment slightly greater than what they would receive if they were talking out of turn. But is it my place to administer such a consequence? I didn't want to let the instance go by without addressing it, but I also didn't want to overstep my bounds with the classroom teacher.
So I compromised.
Rather than flipping their cards from green to yellow, I sent them straight to red. (This elicited tears from my other two offenders who both swore that they were merely followers in the whole troublesome incident, but fair's fair, and they were more than capable of making the right choices for themselves.) I then sat them down and reminded them that their tutoring help was a privilege, and they had to show they were trustworthy enough in order to keep their privilege.
I also had a talk with the teacher (who was still on campus while I was filling in for her) and let her know what I did so that when she was handling the children tomorrow she would know what I had done and what the next step should be.
It's a fine line, trying to determine how you should handle your one "problem child" in a classroom, especially when they repeatedly break the rules and your standard options have run out.
But after all that, my little friend was still the first one to run up and give me a hug at the end of the day :)
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