Simone supervises two classrooms during lunch. The students' behaviour in those two classrooms couldn't be further apart... In one classroom, one Grade 6 student keeps the entire group quiet or whispering for the duration. In the other classroom, children fall off their chairs, stand, talk, yell and act like, well, children. While THREE Grade six girls oversee them, no less.
Sigh.
So yesterday, Simone decided to put her foot down. Recess happened to take place inside due to inclement weather and Simone ordered the poorly behaved class to finish a pre-assigned homework assignment before playing. This was met with grumbles, reluctance and, in one case at least, outright defiance.
Come the end of recess, one girl who'd spent her time confined to her desk, complained that one of her classmates had not finished his assignment but had nonetheless played instead.
"Yeah but our teacher told us we didn't have to work on this," he replied, hands on his hips.
"Really?" Simone asked, eyeing the boy. "But I told you to do the assignment and guess what? That's what you should have been doing. You behaved poorly during lunch and the assignment was the consequence. Now you've disrespected me as well as behaved poorly."
The boy's teacher had come in just in time to hear Simone's tirade and immediately pulled the boy into the school hallway where she ordered him to write a letter of apology to Simone. Then she swept back into the classroom and told her class that since they had behaved poorly, they would now get to spend five minutes with their head resting on their desk. Had it been appropriate, Simone might have given a whistle of admiration...
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