Games Middle Schoolers Play

Spring is in the air, which means that my middle school students are up to their seasonal antics.  I have been dealing with middle school antics for a decade, but have to admit that this year's students may be the overall winner so far.  Here are some true tales from the trenches:

• My school created a daily progress report form.  Often parents will request that teachers complete this form everyday, other times teachers themselves will take students under their wing and implement this type of accountability.  Blank forms are easily accessible to students and some of my better behaved students decided to forge one with a terrible report just to drive me crazy.
• One of my students brought in her pet rabbit to school.  She carried it around in her purse all day, just like rich people carry around their chihuahuas.  She showed it to me last period of the day and to be honest, I was too tired to make a big deal out of it.  I agreed to ignore it as long as I did not see it during class.  All was fun and games until she disregarded my instructions and handed it off to her friend, who interrupted class to announce that the rabbit peed on her. Luckily, I was able to hold the class together and they did not go into their natural state and cause a ruckus while I handed the student a roll of paper towels.  
• I walked into my classroom while another teacher was conducting a lesson in there.  One of her seventh grade students disrupted her lesson to challenge me to a push-up contest.  It was completely random, but I was in a good mood, so I accepted the challenge.  I won!

Happy Memorial Day weekend.  Remember, there are only a few weeks left :)