Metamorphosis

Not unlike becoming werewolves at the sight of a full moon, my kids have become monsters-- bearing claws and howling into the night. I'm not exactly sure when the full moon appeared, but it was sometime in January. All I know is, I have never been so furious with my students. By the end of the day, I was reading the riot act to my entire class--the closest I have been to yelling.

The day started out great. It was author's day and Deborah Turner spoke to the school about her book: "How Willy Got His Wheels". It's a true story about a rescued chihuahua whose back legs didn't work. Deborah tried helium balloons and a skateboard to help him walk but nothing worked until she found a special doggie wheelchair in a magazine. Now he uses his front legs and his wheels in the back and rolls around, appearing on TV and in assemblies around the world. It was very cool because she brought Willy with her and all the kids got to pet him. At the end of the assembly, she gave one of my girls a postcard with a picture of Willy on the front.

One of my werewolves decided it would be appropriate to take the postcard from her at lunch and flush it down the toilet in the boys' bathroom. The entire bathroom flooded as a result, the plumbing was backed up, and the janitor had to close all the boys' bathrooms down to fix the problem. My little girl was crying so hard, it might as well have been Willy himself that he flushed down that toilet.

During afternoon recess, another one of my werewolves purposefully excluded a student (one of MY deaf students who is fully mainstreamed in a different class) by saying: "You can't play with us, you're not in our class!!". The words sounded even more spiteful to me as I remembered that this student is having a hard time dealing with real bullies in his general ed. class.

Yet another of my little monsters, after my aide asked him to sit out of the dodge ball game for rough-housing, picked up a rock and hit a random boy who happened to be walking by. For no discernible reason.

At this point in time, I am ready to howl at the moon myself.