September State of the Classroom: Where my girls at?

I think I'm going to have to start having these mini-State of the Union addresses to talk about my class.

Because, my class.
Oh, my class.
My class is not bad this year. I had that group two years ago, and drank lots of wine. This year, my class is just Q.U.I.R.K.Y.

I was going to put the year on the title, because I may want to continue doing these for years to come, but then I realized that I will probably never have a class such as this.

We are 12 boys, 8 girls, and one teacher. I make that distinction, because of my 8 girls, at least three of them are quite certain they could do my job just as well as I do, but probably better. Two of these three are chomping.at.the.bit to get a hold of just a smidge of authority and run it into the ground.

My boys are wonderful. Smart, funny, and a tad bit mischievous. Hard-working, a little boisterous, but completely manageable. They are helpful, sometimes to a fault, but when they mix with the girlies-

God bless us all.

Of my 8 girls, 5 of them have very strong personalities. One wears a cape. Yes, a cape. I keep waiting for her to pull a rabbit out of her desk or a long, multicolored handkerchief out of her locker, but nothing yet. She's on a kick now in which anytime someone says something to her, she turns it around to them and includes the phrase "your face." As in, "Yeah, well at least my cape looks better than your face." It's interesting to say the least.

One other of my girls is into everyone's business, at the expense of her own work. She's quite the tattler, and so I always know what everyone else in the room is doing. At.all.times. She gets the "Go. Sit. Down." more than anyone else in the classroom.

We've changed our rules up as of today. Instead of the nice printed sign with the five fourth grade rules, I've put up a hand-printed sign that says:

1. Mind your OWN business.
2. Raise your hand to speak.
3. Take care of this classroom and the things in it.

The mind-your-own-business thing is going to be our downfall. At one point today, one of my boys (Suds) tried to help another sweet girl straighten up the carpet squares. Go.Sit.Down tried to step in and do it for him, and the two of them got into the most passive/aggressive carpet straightening fight I've ever seen.

Here's the best part: I just let it happen.

There was almost a wrestling match going on, and at one point Suds looked at me and I could see the pain in his eyes that said "I know I'm not supposed to hit girls but I want to punch her in the face." I almost looked the other way so he could get a jab in, but I know his mamma raised him right and that would never happen. Sigh.

So. September State of the Classroom:
1. Several of them want my job, but I'm not giving it up. How sad for them.
2. We've got some new rules and a new plan of action.
3. We may or may not make it to October without self-destructing, but we're damn sure going to try.

The best part of it all is that KC feels the same way as I do, and we spend a good part of our day just laughing at everything that goes down in room 415.

The good.
The bad.
The quirky.

Tomorrow is another installment of Text Message Tuesday, and Wednesday? Oh, friends. Wednesday is picture day. The cape is coming off, but I'm guessing it won't come off without a fight.