Lightning Bugs

I have thought up a simile for catching and keeping a group of 6th graders' attention. A simple, summery simile.

Keeping the attention of 6th graders is like catching lightning bugs. Like catching lightning bugs with one hand. Like catching lightning bugs with a jar without a lid and without a bottom. Like catching lightning bugs with jet engines strapped to their behinds; jet engines that are badly balanced so that they fly in an erratically unpredictable pattern. Yeah, that's just about right. 

In other news, I will tell you an after school story today. There is a student who is a regular and with whom I like to joke around. He is such a joy to have in our program, and he has improved his behavior so much this year it's not even funny. His heart is so kind, it makes me smile just to think of him. Today we were joking around and he took it a step too far. Other students were getting a little out of hand, so I had a moment with all of them in which we decided that we were going to either do what we were supposed to do or end after school early and spend some time calling all of their parents. 

Everyone settled down a bit, except this student thought this would be a good time to start mimicking my every word with a horribly annoying affectation. I asked him seriously to stop because this wasn't an appropriate time to joke around. He didn't stop, so I told him that we would call his mom (which he mimicked in a high-pitched voice). He kept pushing it, and I had a really weird feeling that he kept pushing it almost out of habit, like he didn't know what else to do. 

After everyone else had left to do today's fun activity (egg toss competition), we stayed behind and I tried to get to the bottom of it. I asked what had set him off to continue being rude after the mimicking thing. He said that I had started it. I asked how, because if I did something that was disrespectful I wanted to apologize ASAP. He said he couldn't think of anything. I asked if he was mad that I had gotten stern with the others. He said no. I still had a weird feeling that he wasn't really upset or disrespectful, but almost that he was acting like he was. I finally told him about my feeling. I told him that I was so proud of how well he'd been acting and that I didn't feel like this was him. I said that I like to joke around and I know he does too, but that sometimes we need to be serious and that he just crossed the line a little bit. I said that's okay, sometimes we go a little too far and we just have to apologize for that sincerely and move on. I asked if he was just feeling a little too embarrassed to apologize for going a little too far and he didn't know what else to do but keep being disrespectful. Bingo. He apologized, I forgave him, and we went along our merry way. Not before I asked what he'd do differently the next time or in a similar situation. "Apologize sooner, Miss." 

Also, my partner and I won one of the rounds of egg toss, but only slightly before a hail-mary egg pass smashed in my hands and got on every part of my uniform. Needless to say, I did laundry tonight. But not before I attended the band concert and cheered embarrassingly loud for all of my students in beginner band. My  mom woulda been proud.