This year, I have a child in my class that I will call "A.M." because he is my Anger Management child. He came in to my classroom in the beginning of hte year throwing fits, crying, wailing, and becoming violent whenever I told him something he didn't want to hear. After MONTHS of documenting his actions, making adjustments, using every possible intervention...he finally got some counseling and mom got him some meds to balance his mood. Now, he is a dream. No joke. I am NOT one to encourage putting such young children on meds, but this child made such the turn around! And now, he has become the most HONEST first grader you will ever meet.
Why, you may ask?
Because today, A.M. came to me after recess and said, "Mrs. C, I wanted to let you know that at recess, I pushed "so and so" down because she wouldn't get out of my way and I called her dumb. Then she hit me so I hit her back."
I was totally shocked by the fact that this child just told me the honest truth, even though he knew he was going to get in trouble! I proceed to talk to him about his actions and the fact that he should have made a better choice. Then, I asked him what he thought his conseqeunce should be. This was his response:
"I should definitely pull a card and owe you all my recess for the rest of today."
Wow. A.M. so made my job easier today. And because of his brutal honesty, I only took away one recess instead of two. I mean, honesty IS the best policy. ;)
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