Junior High Games

Do you know the sign game? If not, let me explain. The players all sit in a circle. Each player has a sign. Some signs might be a wink, an ear tug, an okay sign, scratching your knee, playing with your hair, thumbs up, etc. One person is in the middle. The players in the circle have to pass the signs around without the person in the middle catching them. It's a fun game! The best part is being able to pass the signs almost right in front of the person in the middle without them noticing. The game gets pretty crazy and funny.

Teaching junior high is a lot like playing the sign game. Today I was giving a math test. A girl in the class is dating a guy in the class. During class, she tried to pass a note to her boyfriend via other students. *note* They sit on opposite sides of the room from each other...for a reason.

I felt like we were playing the sign game. I knew exactly who had the note. It sat with this kid the remainder of class because I watched him like a hawk. Seriously - there were only 30 minutes left in class. She could wait to talk to him. Right? That's what I thought.

So, we played this little game. She kept watching the boy with the note to see if he had passed the note yet. He kept trying to find an opportunity to sneakily reach for the note and pass it on. That opportunity never came.

Now, I don't claim to catch every move that goes on. Even I'm not that good. But I think it's funny that they think I don't notice any of what's going on. For instance: students will sit with their backpacks in their laps and their hands in the bag - what could they be doing?? Then they seem surprised when their cell phone gets taken away. How did I know they were texting? Ha ha. I must be smarter than I look...

They try to be so sneaky. It always makes me laugh. for instance, every student has an agenda with pass in it. In order to use their passes, they have to have their own agenda. This agenda is also useful for students who come to class tardy. They are allowed three tardies per class per quarter...as long as they have their agenda. No agenda? Then the tardy becomes a detention.

I can't tell you how funny it is watching a student trying to get someone to lend them their agenda to "borrow" in order to leave the room. Some teachers could care less and don't pay much attention to such things. I'm not that teacher. I very closely examine the agenda and if I'm not sure it belongs to that student, s/he isn't allowed to use it. Call me a stickler. I prefer strict. I couldn't function if my classroom wasn't organized and run on rules, rewards, and consequences. (Sometimes I wonder what that means about the kind of parent I'll be...)

As a brief fourth and final example. After a boy was done with his test, he laid his head down on his desk. I didn't mind today. I was sluggish, hungry, and really needed to use the bathroom. Plus, he'd finished his test, so I didn't bother him...until he began snoring and drooling. At that point, it became necessary to wake him. He was sheepish, but he stayed sitting up and awake the rest of class. PS. He didn't believe me when I told him he'd been snoring. My response? "Yeah, you were actually snoring. That's why I had to wake you up."

I really wish I could lay my head down on my desk and take a quick power nap...