Hypotheticals.........

  One of the situations that has driven me crazy this year is the constant influx of new students. You will develop your classroom community with rules, procedures, understandings of personalities, and will iron out the wrinkles to have a well oiled machine only to find it ruined by a kid that has been expelled from H.W Byers or Byhalia or just moved down from Chicago or Detroit. This throws a wrench in your spokes and can cause a breech in your control. An added bonus is that most of the kids that come from these other districts may have been kicked out of their other schools and can be poor influences on your kids. I have found this to be one of the more frustrating situations. It is almost April and I received two new students last week. One of which was sporting a blue bandana in his waistband which I told him to remove. I said, "don't go flying any flags here or you will be expelled....again". He smiled and said "alright Mr. Johnson". I would say this best way to deal with this frustrating scenario is to go over your rules, consequences, and procedures again for their benefit. I have also taken these students out in the hallway and had a pep talk with them about the way things work. I am sure I will get more students before the year is out.

    Here is another situation that doesn't have an easy solution. I am teaching a lecture and a girl (who is a great student) calls me over. She asks to go to the bathroom and says that she is sick. I notice that her pants are wet and that there is a yellow puddle on the seat and floor. How do you handle this so as to get her to the bathroom without embarrassing her any more than you have to? 
     I told her to go and she wrapped a jacket around her waist. I buzzed the office for the custodian and told him that someone "threw up" in the room. The kids had some ewww's , etc, but remained fairly calm. One student asked why it was yellow and another student informed him that it was stomach acid and I explained that it happens when you have an empty stomach. I figured throw-up may be less embarrassing than pee....who knows?