A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Drama King

Yup, that would be my title for a book if I ever wrote one. I have several drama kings and queens in my classes, but one of them tops all. Remember finger-in-the-electrical-socket-Ivan-the-Terrible from Student Teaching 1? I have one of those too. This one is different. When I think of this kid, I think of Prince Edward from "Enchanted."

Yep, that guy. Dramatic, enthusiastic, and emotional. From now on we shall call my third grade drama king "Prince Edward." 

Prince Edward has a crisis about once or twenty times a day. His crises are generally real crises (unlike his crises over why I wouldn't add him on Facebook and why he couldn't even find me on Facebook), but he makes them a lot more dramatic than they need to be. You know the type... the one who plays the martyr, the  "sacrificial" one, the "wounded-but-moves-on" type. I don't know why I seem to be his shrink, but whatever. One of his crises was on Thursday. I have cafeteria lunch duty on Thursdays and he makes sure that he gets to eat "by Teacher" (probably so he can have his shrinking session). 

This is how Thursday's session went:

"So, Prince Edward, how did your theater club go last week?"

[Huge eyes, enthusiastic voice] "IT WAS FUN!"

"What did you do?"

He proceeds to tell the teacher what he did.

[Pause]

"But you know, M_____ didn't apologize to me so that kinda ruins my feelings towards theater right now," says Prince Edward the Dramatic. 

[Teacher tries not to choke on rice]

"What happened?" asks the straight-faced teacher.

"We fought," he says with a sad sigh.

"Maybe she doesn't know how much she hurt you," says the positive teacher in that annoyingly-positive teacher fashion.

[Prince Edward's mind moves a mile a minute and soon he's on to something else and before you know it, he's not next to "Teacher" anymore.]

Ten minutes later... Prince Edward returns.

"Teacher, I know that M_______ knows how much she hurt me," he says smugly.

"Oh?" she says, naively expecting he had a nice, mature conversation with the girl.

"Yeah.. in science class today we were supposed to eliminate people from our group and I eliminated her even though she didn't need to be eliminated!!!" he says triumphantly.

And then "Teacher" delivered a lecture on revenge and getting even compared to a Christ-like response.

Friday's session went like this:

In the hallway during recess.

"Um, M______ owes me money," he says, clutching his snack container and a large fruit shake. (This is a boy M this time)

"What do you mean?"

"Well yesterday I bought M_____ a sandwich and he told me he'd pay me back, but he didn't and he said he didn't have the money. I had to use my lunch money to buy my snack and I only have ten pesos for lunch, so I don't know what I'll do, just drink juice?" He pauses. "And I just HATE to ask teachers for money." 

"I think you should talk to your homeroom teacher about this."

A few minutes later in the faculty room, Teacher sees the money-owing child.

"M______, let me talk to you for a minute."

"Yes?"

"Do you owe Prince Edward money?"

"No..." he says with shifty eyes.

"Something about a sandwich?"

"He said it was for free," says M____ as he stares at the ceiling, the cabinet, the floor and anywhere but the teacher.

"Look me in the eyes. Did you tell Prince Edward you would pay him back?"

"....yes."

"And what are you going to do about that?"

"Pay him back..."

[Blah blah blah more teacher lecture about kindness, and honesty, etc.]

An hour later in English class

"Did you settle things with Prince Edward?"

"Recess was over. I'll do it at lunch."

Lunchtime...

"Prince Edward, did M______ give you the money?"

"Yes, but it was short 5 pesos so I GAVE it back to him and I will just...drink...water," he says in a feeble voice. 

"Oh no you don't. I will get you 5 pesos but you cannot just have water for lunch, especially since you're in my class right after lunch!" 

Anyway, this kid could win an award for best actor. 

Other than that, the week went smoothly for the most part. Once Tuesday is over, I feel home-free since Tuesday is my 8-class day and Wednesday is my 3 class day. I had parents asking me to reconsider the grades of their kids who didn't follow directions and got questions wrong, but other than that, my drama was nothing compared to Prince Edward's perceived drama. 

I am entirely too new a teacher and too inexperienced a teacher to offer teaching tips, but I learned something this week: A child in a class needs to feel like an individual. A child needs to feel that they are special in a class full of other children. I give one child a class a note every day. They're shuffled randomly, so the kids don't know who will get the next note. I usually sneak it in with their seatwork when I hand things back and some kids don't notice. One class has caught on and they are always on the look-out for who was "special" that day and they all have to read it and examine the sticker. (I don't understand kids and their obsession with stickers... seriously... it's a sticker.) Yesterday I gave one to a quiet girl in my third class and I happened to look at her as she unclipped it from her paper and turned it over. Her face lit up and a little smile spread out across her face as she read it several times. So yeah... letting a kid know that the teacher notices just HIM or HER in a class full of kids goes a long way. (It also takes a bit of creativity on the teacher's part if the kid is particularly difficult and you'd rather deliver a sermon on the note than give positive encouragement... hahaha)

Happy Weekend, everyall!