Ahhhh gotta love middle schoolers

Today during my planning, I subbed for a friend's fitness class b/c she was still gone on mid-winter break vacation with her family in Idaho. On Fridays, the Fitness Dept. conducts Fitness Friday, which the kids run and/or walk on a big trail around our campus and part of the high school campus and track. Most of the kids hate it, but they do it. Anyway, I had to be stationed wayyyy out by the trees and make sure that the kids didn't cut through the big valley and run or walk all the way around and behind the trees. Here were my encounters today...(now, remind you, the kids I was subbing for were 7th graders and didn't realize I was a teacher in the school already so they were treating me like a real sub...)

Kid #1 totally cheats and makes a HUGE cut through the valley...I say to him, "HEY! No cutting! You need to go all the way around the trees!" Kid goes, "But I got a fuckin' sideache!!" I had no response other than, "Well if you have a sideache, then stop running and walk but don't cut b/c now I have to mark down that you did so!" He responded, "ok." This child I know and he's super impulsive, much like his older brother, who I had once upon a time. Once I talked to him about refraining from using the F-bomb in school, we had a nice chat about his brother. I would have made a bigger deal out of it had he yelled this in front of tons of kids, but he was all by himself and I got the impression this was not the kind of kid to engage negatively with, that he'd respond better to sarcasm or humor.

Kid #2: running through the trees...I yell, "Good job everyone, keep going! You're almost done!" While I'm saying this, I am taking a bunch of pictures for yearbook, newspaper, for our archive. Kid #2 yells out, "Hey, are you taping us?" I say back, "Nope, just taking pictures for the yearbook..." His response back? while flipping me off he yells, "How about you take a picture of this?!" Then he yells, "Or how about you take a picture of THIS?!" and he gives me the "shocker" sign. gross! I asked a bunch of kids behind him, "Hey, who is that kid up there with blonde hair?" A chubby little boy running by acting all clueless falsely claims, "Um I forgot!" Luckily, a smart little girl running behind him yells, "Oh that's KYLE!" 'Thanks, I say...I'll take 20 seconds off of your time just for that tip!" haha

So I go up to his teacher and ask her if Kyle likes to say naughty things. She claims he's NEVER acted up in her class EVER. Okay, cool. I told her what happened and she was appalled and urged me to write a referral. I told her I didn't really think a referral was necessary, but I thought we could just talk to him about not flipping off teachers even when he's joking. So, we go and talk to him and his teacher goes, "Why did you flip off Coach Fitz?" The look on his face was priceless. Suddenly he realized I wasn't a sub, but an actual teacher here at Cascade. I replied, "Yes, young man, it was rather rude that you flipped me off. Next time, think about things before you do them." He immediately apologized and it was very heartfelt. So, I forgave him and told him I hope he learned a valuable lesson today. LOL

I had to chuckle at my Fitness Friday experience as a sub. Funny how different kids act around their regular teachers vs. subs at times. Cracks me up. While these behaviors are not the norm from my students, they were lucky I was in a good mood today and didn't bust them up! haha They were just being immature and impulsive, as most 7th graders are...