The Honeymoon is Over

Every teacher knows that there is a honeymoon period at the beginning of the school year and when it's over the children start to show their true colors, their "unique" habits and "fun" character traits!

My honeymoon period is officially over. It ended last week when a child stole some Expo markers and she and two of her friends ditched class and vandalized the girls bathroom. All three girls are good kids and made a bad decision, this will pass and hopefully they will make better choices in the future.

I thought that was the end of it until I went got to school on Friday to discover that a green, glass paperweight had been stolen off my desk. I had a pretty good hunch who had taken it but I didn't want to accuse anyone. I want so badly to believe that this school is different from my previous school and bad things don't happen (yes, it is a fairytale!).

When I let the kids in at 7:15 (45 minutes before school) there was a big group, about 18. Mostly they were working on science projects due that day. Some were studying for the quiz in my class that was also that day. I got a book order turned and put it in my drawer, walked away from my desk to help a student for about 3 minutes, went back to my desk and got the order out to put in my purse. Yep, the money was gone.

One student had conspicuously disappeared and I knew right away what was going on. I was so angry but I had no proof. I spent a few minutes in each class letting the students know how disappointed I was that I had extended the trust to them of letting them be in the room outside of class time and to have that trust violated would have consequences starting with a new closed door policy.

In essence this really punishes me because I lose that time with the students to have them around and help them with their homework, let them check out books, talk to them, listen to them, just having them their being noisy is a comfort to me during the day.

Two students came forward as witnesses to seeing the student who stole the paper weight (a gift from a friend). Which meant now I had solid proof to go to administration. It is being dealt with and the student is facing being sent to his host school as this is not the first theft at school and also he has been arrested for shoplifting.

While I feel bad, I also have had to remember that I am a magnet teacher now and I have to have extremely high expectations of my students in and out of class. I have to focus on pushing them not bringing them up. They have to be able to cut it. The support I received from my superiors was great and I have not had to deal with the issue at all after I turned it over. What a relief it is to have a chain of command that works the way it is intended.