snack and dismissal

The last 20 minutes of the school day is an interesting time. I am ridiculously busy trying to complete progress charts and notes to send home to parents, while trying to get the room cleaned up for the day. Meanwhile, the kids are having a great time. Their day is over, they're eating something unhealthy (the issue of P.G. County food for poverty-level children is something I'll leave for another time), and the level of supervision is low. In other words, a great time to get attention from Ms. Marshall. They really are quite sneaky about it. I even realized today that they have come up with an unspoken plan of attack. They wait until I am working on something so that I won't nip their attempt in the bud by making them sit down again. First, one child will approach me. Typically it will be a child that has been following directions well that day, so I won't summarily dismiss them. The ploy also works well if it is the child about whom I am writing a note, since they can make a reasonable request to know what the note says. Once one child has successfully approached me, it is safe for one more child to come and watch, as long as they don't say anything. Once this is accomplished, two more children can come up and also watch. This tactic continues until either a child breaks the rules by speaking or until I suddenly am overwhelmed by the amount of human contact and send them all back to the tables. It only gets worse when snack time is over and they must gather their backpacks and coats. Now I have just given them a great excuse to wander around the room.

Snack and dismissal are also great times for random comments. For example, today Aiyanna said, "Ms. Marshall, you look like a snake!" Jayden quickly responded, "No she doesn't! She looks like a lion!" Clearly neither of these children have yet learned that it's not a compliment to be called either a snake or a lion. The class immediately got into a heated debate over whether I looked more like a snake (because I have green eyes) or a lion (because I have yellow hair). Neither side won, because I told them all to finish putting their folders in their bags. For the record, I don't have either green eyes or yellow hair. They're more hazel and light brown, but I suppose with only black hair and black eyes to compare mine to, the students don't have a very accurate frame of reference.

Eloquent...or not.

Sometimes I know just what to say. Today we had an assembly for Black History Month. I was crammed between Obeechina and Daija on tiny cafeteria-table seats trying to keep the 11 kids on my row quiet during the hour-and-a-half program. At one point, Obeechina whined, "I'm tiiirrrrreddd." That wasn't hard. "Great. Then you can sit quietly and listen."

Then again, sometimes I have no idea what to say. At one point Obeechina glared at me and said, "Someone breathed on my cheek. I don't LIKE it when people breathe on my cheek!" He continued to glare at me while I floundered for possible responses. I really didn't know how he would react to the obvious fact that it was either me or Abraham that had breathed on his cheek. I opted for an eloquent "Hm." Apparently he felt vindicated, but I'm still wondering what kind of response he expected. Next time I sit next to Obeechina I'll be more prepared for random accusations.