In the morning all the teachers stand in the hall to monitor the students as they arrive to school and ask teachers for passes to eat breakfast. The teacher located across from me was asked by a student how long spring break would last. She explained to the student they had two weekends and Monday-Friday off from school. A student who was standing near by piped in and said, "So, we get two weeks off from school" The teacher turns to the student and politely says, "No, that's not accurate. Two weekends plus Monday through Friday equals nine days. Two weeks would equal fourteen days." Either you, the reader, are laughing, or you are saying to yourself, "Really? This kid thought two weekends plus five days equaled two weeks!?"
Moving on to fifth period because I do not want to relive the rest of the day in story-form. The students with good behavior were rewarded with a fun day. The team I was subbing on never rewards the students with a fun day. The students know the other teams in the same hall have fun day, but they are never rewarded with fun day. The students don't understand fun day is a reward, a privilege. It not given to you because you are sitting in the classroom taking up space. You, the student, must complete assignments, turn in work on time, follow school and class rules, show respect to adults, and etc. I say all that because the few students, or really closer to twenty students, who do not exhibit good behavior on a regular basis were placed in the smallest classroom to do work while the students with a good behavior history were split into the two larger classrooms to enjoy a PG rated movie.
I was in the smaller classroom with the "bad students." The co-teacher was in the room with me and she was unfortunately suffering from a migraine. One student asked to go to nurse because he played basketball the night before and injured his head. The co-teacher looked at him and said, "You wait until this period to complain about a head injury that occurred almost 24 hours ago?" She filled out a nurse pass for him to get some ice for the bump on his head. As soon as he left the room, other students were complaining about headaches and body injuries and asked if they could go to the nurse. One student would not stop complaining about a headache. The co-teacher told the student she had a headache too and if she could sit there and not complain then the girl could do the same. The student's response was, "My headache is worse those yours. It hurts more." The co-teacher just looked at the girl and said, "Excuse me? How do you know your headache is worse than mine?" That was the end of that conversation.
That all took place in fourth period. Once it was time for fifth period the co-teacher had to leave for the other class she helps in. I was shuffled to one of the bigger rooms to monitor the students as they watched a movie while the teacher in that room monitored the "bad students." Before I went to the movie room, I selected a few of the students who were quiet and working during fourth period to join the other students in the movie room. Approximately ten minutes into fifth period, I noticed a girl sitting in a desk next to the wall acting suspicious. Her head was tilted down, her eyes were focused on her lap and both hands were under the desk. Red flag. I didn't see a cell phone but I knew what she was doing. I paused the movie and took all the students to the bathroom for their scheduled bathroom break. After the bathroom break, once all the students were settled in their seats again I pressed "play" to continue the movie. I look over and the same girl had her head down, eyes focused on her lap and hands under the desk. This time I saw the glowing light of a cell phone. I exclaimed with arms in the air, "Are you kidding me?" As I walked towards her desk, "I can't believe this! Give me the phone! Come with me!" The girl without any objections handed the phone to me, got out of her seat and followed me into the hall. There was an administrator in the small classroom yelling at the students so I was able to call the teacher over and handed her the phone. I was not holding on to a phone that was not mine, and risk the chance of either the student taking it back, or another student stealing it.
Cell phone policy: If a cell phone is out in plain sight, the teacher must confiscate it whether the student was using it or not. The student must wait 5 school days before the cell phone is returned.
This student's phone was confiscated on the Friday before spring break. She had to wait until Friday after spring break to her cell phone back. I hope that text in class was worth it.
Oh, by the way, she was one of the lucky students I had selected to leave the small room to join the other students in the movie room.
~Jonnie
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