August 24th, 2006

I started off this day in the most illustrious way: by getting a ticket in a freaking school zone!
I took a different route to work, and I noticed the crossing guard. I even thought to myself “I need to remember that this is a school zone.”
I don’t know if I forgot immeadetly, or if I thought I was back at my other school, where the limit was 35. It wasn’t 35. It was 20. I was pulled over by one of the city’s finest, who was very polite and professional, but still gave me a ticket.
And one more fun fact, I have a CDL, which means I can’t take defensive driving.
Yup, it was a great start.
However, I decided to use this as an object lesson for my Resource class. I was reteaching classroom procedures anyway, and I thought this would be a good way to talk about consequences. Especially about sometimes consequences happen when you weren’t trying to be bad.
Amidst the responses of
“I woulda told that cop what to do with it”
and
“ I woulda run him over”
I think I made the kiddos think. It was a great opportunity to talk about accepting responsibility. I know they were probably frustrated with my lecture, but they were quieter (heavy on the “er”) when I told them that when you screw up, it’s better to admit it and take your consequences, that you will be more respected that way.
One thing is for sure, they don’t know what to make of me. And I think that ‘s a good thing. If they are trying to figure me out, they haven’t written me off. And I can work with that.