disaster.

My foibles as a teacher are many, but today I almost felt as if the chart peaked to an extreme. Either it's me or my students or maybe both. I know I'm not being very clear...

Friday afternoon homeroom period is a dreaded part of the day to those who like order. An entire class period is devoted for homeroom activity. Today we went outside to play capture the flag. It began as girls against boys. Two of my boys kept pulling their shirts up as if that was some sort of distraction... Then. One boy decided he wanted to switch sides and be a girl. This began the chaos. Boys were betraying each other. Pretending to be on one side then playing for the other. A couple of boys got frustrated. One student Dyami, typical of him, decides he's not enjoying the game and will create his own fun. He runs across the line to the other side and starts tackling/jumping and hugging people's legs while singing a mission-impossible-like-song. I turn around to watch one group of students and the next moment. Dyami is walking away, and Harry is crying. Harry walks away from everyone. A girl comes and tells me Dyami pulled Harry's pants down. I run over to Dyami and say "That was completely unacceptable." He turns his head, and he's already crying. The buses are leaving and kids leave for the buses. I am completely confused as to what has happened. I walk back to my classroom and Harry is rushing out completely upset. Rachelle tells me "Harry, went into Dyami's desk and ripped up all his stuff." ...Lord, help me. And, I didn't see any of it happen? I kept seeing after effects--my children crying.

oh wait...that wasn't it. Once those two boys walked away while outside two other boys were punching each other. So I walk over and tell them to stop. They say, "It's nothing we're just practicing martial arts." So they continue. I tell them not to. Nicola comments that he hates this school. I turn around to look for Harry. David yells, "Ms. Cheung Nicola is was kicking and punching me." but once again I didn't see it. Nicola says argues and says something mean and David tells him something else mean, but they're already on their way home and they're screaming 50 feet away from me, which makes anything I say with my sore throat ineffective.
I'm such a clueless teacher.

the end.