put it in the jar

I try and keep Fridays mellow in my resource room. I'm tired. The kids are tired. However, I still want to keep order, somewhat of an academic environment, and encourage appropriate social skills.

Typically, we do an activity for half the period, then play a game together, and if they have done well that week (i.e. not driven me crazy), I give them snacks/candy.

This Friday, one student, "Matt", came into class a bit cranky. Whining. Saying, "It's Friday, why do we have to do anything? Can't we just watch a movie?"

Then, Matt proceeded to flop his head down on the table.

Having spent the past two months getting to know Mr. Moody-Pa-Toody, I decided to try a new tactic with him.

I got out my "complaint jar", and handed Matt a pile of blank "complaint slips".

I said, "Here write down your complaints, put them in the jar, and I'll read them later."

Well, Matt perked right up!

He stayed quiet, wrote out his complaints, and even engaged in my "stupid" activity.

Some of the other students were curious, and wanted to add some complaints to the jar as well.

"Sure, write down as many as you want!"

During my prep period, I opened the jar, and started reading....one slip at a time. This is always an amusing occasion. I looked forward to it all day.

Here are a sample of today's complaints:

-I hate doing work on Fridays.
-I want to sleep.
-I'm tired of doing work.
-I'm mad.
-I'm bored.
-This school smells like a garbage dump. (we are having a septic issue)
-Louie is bothering me.
-You should get a new jar.
-We should watch TV on Friday.
-More selection of candy (This I don't understand, I had over 10 different kinds of candy in my bowl today! Surely, there was something he liked?)
-Junior Scholastics (the magazine we were reading) are not fun. Just because they pay for books, doesn't mean we have to read them.
-This complaint jar needs to be bigger, because I can complain all day. (No kidding)

And then my favorite student put in a slip that read:

-Matt has 2 many complaints.

Oh, but then how would I amuse myself on a Friday afternoon? I'd have nothing good to read.