Spring Break went like a blur. You are back. There is a field trip the very first day, which is nice. All of fourth grade goes to see a hip hop violin group which involves dancing and sitting in a concert hall.

You have decided that you need to make a system that works for you. They are not respecting you while using Miss M’s style of management. You decide to do a points system for losing recess or earning tablet time at the end of the day. The points grow quickly on the losing recess side, but you try to balance it out by calling out students are working hard and being good students. They only earn 8 minutes of tablet time (it barely beats the losing recess points). This makes them angry when you stop them from playing the tablets after such a short amount of time. The next days start to go a bit more smoothly. The kids are holding each accountable more for their behavior (or trying to). The same students who are acting out, still are, but not as dramatically.

The next week testing starts and you ask for help with quieting them down in advance. Also, you need support to make sure you get them signed in correctly. You were quickly trained via an emailed slideshow over Spring Break. Testing is meant to begin at 12:00 – even with help, the students are not completely silent until 12:30. Most of them finish the test within the first 30 minutes, and the session goes until 1:30. They do not stay silent. You send the most talkative to the office.

There is another field trip! A teacher has volunteered to help out, since it is only your class. They go to a museum and learn about the Oregon Trail. The first part goes well, but there is a second interactive section where it gets rowdy.

Drained and starting to give up on managing them, you remember Miss M will be back part-time on the following Monday. Your two weeks of full days with just you are up!