Countdown Has Begun

There are 19 days left of school, and I shall be happy to send a few kids away!

*Carl is the youngest of two or three kids in his family, and he is babied. A few weeks ago he threw a crying fit in the hallway, because he forgot to grab his practice record sheet when he left for band. He came back to the class to get it, but I wasn't there and had locked the door. I had the audacity to actually use my planning time to run off work instead of waiting in my classroom in case any student needed me...When Carl was unsuccessful at convincing any other teacher to let him into the room to get what he needed, he apparently had an emotional breakdown in the hallway, dissolving into tears. C'mon, buddy-you are almost a 6th grader! And you are crying over this? It's May, and I think that by now grabbing your practice sheet should be automatic. You screwed up. Deal with it.

Then on Friday he actually threw two crying/sulking fits. The first one happened in the morning. I handed back geometry tests, and Carl did poorly, getting less than 70%. One of the questions he missed was one where he was to simply draw a rhombus with no right angles. He correctly drew the shape, as he found the shape on his math template and traced it. That was acceptable. But then he added measurements to the sides of the shape. He made one set of parallel sides measure 1 foot. He made the other set of parallel sides measure 2 feet. Therefore, it was no longer a rhombus. A rhombus has four equal sides. I checked the problem wrong, indicating that his shape was correct, but that the measurements he added then made his answer incorrect. He brought his test up to me.

"Why is this wrong?" he asked. I pointed out exactly what I had already explained on his paper. "But you said my shape is right," he continued to argue.

"Yes," I replied. "But the measurements you included are not correct for a rhombus. A rhombus has 4 equal sides. Your measurements show you inteded the sides to not be equal. It shows me that you do not understand what a rhombus is."

"But I didn't have to put measurements. That was doing extra!" he said. He wanted to be rewarded for that, apparently.

"Sorry. You shouldn't have added the measurements. They are wrong for a rhombus. Your answer is wrong."

"I can erase the measurements," Carl persisted.

"No. The test is over. I have corrected it. Your answer was wrong. You cannot change your answer," I said.

So Carl, who sits in the front row, pouted and scowled at me all morning long. Then it was lunchtime. I took them to lunch, but then called Carl outside. He reluctantly came out.

"Carl, you are on ASB. What is your position?" I asked.

"I'm the treasurer," he replied.

"And are you planning on running for ASB next year?" I inquired further, thinking please, oh please say yes...

"Yes," he answered. SCORE!

"Well," I said, "You need to get a recommendation from your teacher, or have you forgotten? I'll tell you one thing, an ASB officer must be responsible, reliable, and have a great attitude. Not someone who argues with the teacher, and then pouts, scowls, and cries when he doesn't get what he wants. Think about that." I walked away.

And you know what? I will not recommend him. He's babied by his mother, and the teacher he had for the last two years before me babied him. He needs to grow up.