Egg Baby Mishap

So I had my first "major" problem with a class. It left me shaking after the kids were gone.

In my HCE class (Health and Career Education) we have a week where the kids are given an egg (that I've blown the insides out of ... insert joke here) to take care of. We spend a whole class building it a little home and naming it, etc. This project is worth 10% of the kid's mark. All they have to do is fill-in-the blanks on a template that works as a daily journal and have their parents sign the log daily that says the kid brought the egg home with them everyday. I also understand accidents happen so if the kid broke the egg or lost it, they had to write me a 250-word letter about what happened and what they learned to earn their 10%. No biggie.

Day three comes around and we have some drama. One girl leaves class to go to the washroom and comes back and her egg is gone. Someone in class has taken it. I casually tell the kids that whoever has it needs to give it back because the joke is over and it's really not that funny.

So we finish the lesson 10 minutes before the bell and I give the kids some free time. I also tell them that they can go for lunch early it the class is clean and the egg has been returned. The class get tidied up but no egg.

I mention to the kids, again, to give back the egg and they all can go. Most of the kids are playing cards and working on the lap top in the class but some kids are itching to go early. These kids are like, ok, give back the egg. Still no egg.

The bell rings. I am now barricading the door so the kids can't get out. I'm a bit upset that someone took the kid's egg and is not giving it back. Plus, I'm pretty hungry and want my lunch. Some of the kids are trying to get past me and telling me that it's bull that they have to stay when they didn't take the egg. I tell them that someone in the class has the egg and needs to give it back.

The kids then start trying to say that they'll give their egg to the kid that's missing the egg or that she can just write the letter to get marks. I point out that that is not the point. Someone has taken someone else's property and is not giving it back. That is called stealing and I won't tolerate it in my class.

The kids are now getting pissed that they can't for lunch. Some of the kids make small attempts to push past me but they can see I'm pretty mad. They start saying stuff like, "Well, it's her fault that she didn't take care of her egg. She needs to have it with her at all times." And "It's just a stupid egg anyway."

That is not the point!!! Some kid stole something from someone else. I don't care if it was an egg. No one steals in my classroom.

The kids keep up with the arguments and I'm getting genuinely mad, which I never do. I agreed with them that it was a stupid egg and I don't know why who ever took it won't return it.

The one thing that blew me away was that the kids that were vocalizing their anger were more mad at me that I wasn't letting them go then the person who stole the egg and wasn't returning it. I guess in their head they just didn't get it. The kids then start saying that someone must have come in the room and took it. No one came into the room during that time frame.

As I was arguing with the kids that it was the person who stole the egg that is keeping them in at lunch, three kids decided to jump out the window.



As you can see in the photo, this is not an easy feat. A fourth kid would have jumped but he would have been too big.

I felt so helpless because if I had tried to stop the jumpers, the other would have just walked out the door. Of course, this made me more angry. And I realized this. I also realized that one of the kids who jumped out the window could have been the thief. I knew I was about to lose it so I let the kids go and told them that this is so not over and it will be dealt with tomorrow!!

I told the VP about the whole thing asking for advice. He told me to write-up an incident sheet about the kids who jumped and they would be suspended (they weren't, by the way, they just got a lecture ... hmmph!). He suggested I threaten to fail the whole class on the assignment if the egg were not returned. I agreed.

The next day I told the kids about the failing and, of course they were pissed, but again, the vocal ones were pissed that I was unfair and it was just a stupid egg. Just shows that sometimes the vocal ones in a group don't get the point.

As I was explaining this, one kid kept talking over me. After I said, everyone would fail, every time I tried to talk, he'd start yelling. I kicked him out and told him to get some manners. He was one of the jumpers.

Three minutes later, I get a knock on the door, and I open it to find the missing egg on the ground in a Dixie cup. Hmm, I wonder who took it!!!

This whole situation was so frustrating! Another issue is that only two kids handed in the full assignment out of 13 in the class. This class in general just astounds me sometimes.