Hot Dog It's Summer!

I'm so glad that school's out for the summer. There are several students who I will miss, but for the most part I'm glad they're the Junior High's thing now. The last day is always the hardest because you're trying to keep them busy, but at the same time you're trying to do it without textbooks. So it's pretty much like babysitting 28 12 year olds.

Last year's group was rough from Day 1. This year's group was overall really good. Well, at least most of the kids in my room. The other class had a bunch of Me's in it. You know, "It's all about ME!". I never really had a huge problem with them because I only saw them for 90 minutes, and it's easy to get them to do what you want them to in 90 minutes. But today, I got to see them in all of their glory all day long. We had planned a friendly game of kickball between the two classes in the afternoon. Several of the girls just wanted to sit around and talk, so it wasn't very interesting to watch. My class did okay with the rules. The other class, all I can say is, "Goodness Gracious!" They wanted to whine and complain about everything. From bunting the ball to foul balls, to how many fouls you can have, to being able to run over a member of the other team, to being able to throw the ball at the runner to get them out.

I remember kickball in elementary school. Sure it was a little cut-throat, but for the most part we didn't argue (loudly) with the umpire and we accepted whatever happened. Not this group. It got to the point where we had to start taking a point off every time someone argued. We almost took them inside and put them in time out to let them cool off. They argued with their homeroom teacher (mostly). My class would stand and wait patiently for the other class to be quiet so they could continue play. If someone in my class disagreed with a call, they'd come up to my teammate and I and explain why they disagreed, listen to our reasoning, and then go back in line. Several of he students in my class commented on the behavior of the other class, mostly saying they never realized how bad they actually were. I thought that was kind of sad really, their classmates thinking about how bad the behaviors were.

Seeing what my teammate endured all year long applauds her for wanting to return next year.