The Pout

I do dismissal on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week at work. Someone (probably my boss... He must hate me) decided that it's a good idea to put all of the 2nd through 5th grade students from the school into one big room and make them sit for 30 minutes while parents come to pick up their kids. It's not too unbearable on the days when the kids get to go outside, but when the weather is below freezing, we have to keep them inside. All. Day. Long. For those of you who don't spend a whole lot of time with children I'm going to tell you something that you need to know: Kids have a lot of energy. Recess helps them get rid of some of that energy, so they can behave better. When they don't have recess, dismissal becomes a contest to see which class can make me cry first by being disobedient (it's normally a toss up between 2nd and 4th. Ironically, these are the two classes that I've taught... Again, my boss must hate me).

A few weeks ago, we had one of those days-- the really cold ones. So dismissal was pretty rough. Two 2nd grade boys were being particularly out of control. When I started to yell at them, one of them stuck his lip out in a pout. My 4th graders try this often, and my response every time is to say the same thing I said to this little boy: "Put the lip away. It doesn't work." With my 4th grade students, it works well. They tuck that bottom lip in and use their words to convey their messages. This 2nd grade boy, however, disagreed with their approach. He timidly raised his hand and said, "Miss C? Sometimes the lip does work."

Sometimes, it's difficult for me to maintain a straight face when punishing the students.