Who's In Charge Here?

Viktor has been a real pain in the butt the past few weeks. I'm not sure why. Today, when I went to get the kids from recess, the recess teacher pulled me over and talked to me for about 10 minutes about Viktor's behavior at recess. Apparently, he was with the boys playing soccer on the field, but was harrassing others and tripping them.

So I led my class inside. Viktor comes in, looking rather sour-faced. I remind him that we have a movie scheduled for the afternoon, and if he can't behave, he'll be sitting in the office instead. He talks back to me. And argues with me. And tells me that he did not get into trouble at recess. Hmmm. I yanked him from watching the movie.

While the kids were at pe later in the day, I sent an email to the office, saying that Viktor would be coming to the office around 1:40 with work as he had lost the privelege of seeing a movie with the rest of the class. When the kids got back from pe, and I started the movie, I sent Viktor to the office. He had a lot of work to do on his ABC of 5th Grade Memories book.

He came back in about 15 minutes. "Viktor, why are you here?" I asked.

"I finished," he replied.

"I don't care," I said. "We are watching a movie and you lost the right to be able to watch it with us. Go back to the office."

Later, I see our recess teacher peering into my room. I went to the door. She asked me some question; I don't remember what. Then she wondered when our movie would be finished because Viktor wanted to know when he could come back to class. I told her that it would play for most of the rest of the day.

About 10 minutes after that, another gal in the office called the room over the intercom. "Mrs. Teacher?" she said. I turned down the volume on the movie. "Yes..." I replied.

"Is your movie almost done? Viktor would like to know when he can come back," she asked.

"No, it is not almost done," I replied. "I will let the office know when it is over."

Finally at about 3:20, I stopped the movie. It was soon going to be time to get ready to go home, and it was a good stopping point in the movie. I decided that we can watch the last 10-15 minutes tomorrow. Then I called the office, and told them that they could send Viktor back to class for dismissal.

After all the kids had finally left for the day, I went to check my emails. I hadn't checked them all afternoon while the movie played. There were many emails. One was from our Education Assisstant.

"Is you movie over yet? Viktor wants to know when he can return to class..."

If you ask me, as far the office was concerned, Viktor was calling all the shots this afternoon.