Drama Club - 4/2/08

Today went so smoothly that I could almost go so far to say that it was boring. Even routine. Okay that's not exactly true. There were a couple of issues here and there. It took a little while to get started. It's always difficult to get them to settle down. So I like to wait for them to quiet down before I take them into the room. The whole process usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Once we got in and did the usual opening warm-up, I had the kids play a very simple game that I've had them play before. They toss around a beanbag while reciting Hamlet's famous speech. Each participant says one word at a time. I broke them up into teams in order to provide some competition. That seemed to go well. There were about 15 kids in the club today and about 4 of them were not into the game at all. That's the really difficult part about a large group. I can't engage everyone all the time. I simply chose to just let me hang loose. Then I had them rehearse the Romeo and Juliet scene. It started out very well. The kids are getting more and more comfortable with it. But then, the mutiny occurred around 4:15 or so. All of a sudden, every kid felt that they just had to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. That is such bullshit. In case I haven't made it clear, I don't work in the middle of the Sahara. It's a school. I also only have them for about an hour and a half. So they can freaking handle the extra 10 minutes it would have taken to finish what we were doing before we left for the day. So the club ended with me getting very angry and putting the group in a big time out. Plus there will be another 10 minute time out added on next Monday's club. And of course, the time out contained one of my classic lectures. After the club, this one girl, Jamir, whose a little odd, asked me if she was good today. Now I'm no fool. The reason that she asked this question was because sometimes, when kids behave, I give them lollipops. She knows this. Despite the fact that it's actually rather rare that I do this. They all remember the lollipops and always forget about the time outs. So after I told her that today was, in fact, one of the worst days for her in terms of behavior, she simply replied with a very blunt, "Can I have a lollipop?" I really do find it amazing that I do one or two "special things" (like going outside or candy) for the kids and for some reason they feel entitled to it. They really don't seem to get the point. Looks like that's another point I'll have make a little clearer.