But I'll get a whoopin'...

Six times I heard that phrase, all in a matter of 30 minutes...

It all started when I was back to the school in Casselberry to work with the students in the 21st Century program. As I was watching one student walk back to her class, I was waiting for the other little girl to meet me at the end of the hall. As soon as she reached me, she started crying! I had no idea what was going on, I hadn't even gotten the opportunity to say hi to her! My initial reaction was to get down to her level and ask what was wrong...

She forgot her math homework, again, and her teacher wasn't letting her go back to her classroom to get it. I just spoke to her and tried to get her to breath. I told her that her teacher is just trying to get her to be responsible, but we will go together to speak to the teacher. I forgot to mention, this student is in first grade. So we go talk to her teacher, and she said exactly the same thing I did; she wants the student to be responsible and she can't keep forgetting to rip out her homework. As soon as we walk out of the portable, the student started crying again and said she was going to get a whoopin'. The whole way back to our table, the students was crying and almost hyperventilating.  She kept repeating, "but I'm gonna get a whoopin". I told her I we would go to the behavior specialist office and try to print out her homework.

Unfortunately, I would need a username and password to access the math homework pages. How do I tell the student I can't print them out? How do I stop the "whoopin" from occurring? She was telling me about past "whoopin's she gotten and I didn't want her to have to go through it again.

As a teacher, knowing that these students do not have the parental support at home or the guidance, when do we make exceptions and allow the student to rip out the page of her homework? I understand we need our students to gain a sense of responsibility, but if we hear a student say they are going to get a "whoopin'", whether it's true or not, shouldn't we try and refrain that from happening?


Until next time...
Jasmin