I had a 1st grade class a couple weeks ago. Those are always fun. You get a wide variety of kids in that age bracket who say and do some adorable and unintentionally hilarious things. And sometimes they're not so adorable or hilarious. Sometimes, its a good mixture, such as this case:
The Good
I had had this class before for 2 days, so I was a little familiar with how the class ran and who the kids were, which is always a plus. Most kids are still learning to sit on their bottoms and raise their hands and walk in line, but this class as a whole wasn't too bad (besides the one girl who I had to tell 3 times in 2 minutes to face forward in line because the line kept leaving without her).
Speaking of walking in line, usually whenever I see 2 students walking next to each other, I inform one that he or she is "next to the line, not in the line." In one instance, however, I saw two 1st grade boys standing next to each other holding hands. I almost said something but then I saw how ridiculously, amazingly, unbelievably cute it was, and I let it slide. I had a brief thought that I could kidnap the two and raise them as my own twin sons because of how adorable the pair was. I quickly talked myself out of it because I would probably be fired, and it might be slightly suspicious if I, a single black man, all of a sudden had white twin boys that looked nothing alike.
The Bad
For every pair that I want to adopt, there's that one who I want to give back to his parents ASAP. In this class, it was Cliff*. The very last thing on my lesson plans told me, "Cliff can be a handfull. Keep an eye on him." And, oh my man, was Cliff a handfull. After the bajillionth time of telling him to stay in his seat, get to work, stay focused, etc., he tells me that he forgot to take his brown pill. Oh, boy. I call the nurse to see if they have extra "brown pills" on hand (I don't really know what the law is concerning that kind of thing) and they tell me that they'll call Grandma to see if she can bring some and they'll call when she gets here, kthanksbye.
Cliff asked me several times throughout the day if the nurse had called back yet. I assured him that he wasn't the only one who wanted him to take his pill and that id let him know immediately.
On a side note, I was able to pull him away from the rest of the class and explain to him that he wasn't in trouble. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't distracting the other students. He seemed to understand and cooperate.
The Ugly
Every once in a while, there's a real special case that I just can't handle. In this case, it was Gilbert. At this school, they provide breakfast in the classroom. I had to choose some students to take the empty crate back to the cafeteria. Gilbert asked if he could do it, but he had another classroom job, so I chose other people. Gilbert was not okay with this. He started crying. And wouldn't stop. I feel like I'm pretty alright when it comes to calming crying children, but he was inconsolible. No matter what I said, he just kept crying. And loudly. The other students kept asking, "Why is Gilbert crying," to which I responded, "Don't worry about him. Let's get back to work."
How long could he sit and cry over something so trivial? I can't answer how long he could, but I can tell you how long he did: almost an hour. When it came time for us to take a spelling test, I told him he either needed to stop or he'd have to leave the classroom because he was too distracting.
I eventually called the office because he was not moving from his seat. One of the office ladies actually had to pick him up and carry him to the office (making this the second, but not last, time a child had to be carried out on my watch). I got a call from the office not too long after saying that the poor darling was going home. I obviously couldn't have known that he would react like that, otherwise I would have let him take the breakfast crate back, but I felt sorry that he felt so upset over it (I'm assuming there are probably deeper issues however).
Class dismissed