>Remember when I tallied a few of my report card comments and found these coming up frequently?
Easily distracted
Impulsive
Excess talking, needs better self-control
— and more like those?

Today I was reminded that I must, must talk with several parents about distractibility and the potential for medical intervention. If the child has a medical reason for restlessness and lack of control, it’s a whole different world from the child who chooses to act out.

The clocks were being reset semi-manually, from a remote controller in the school office. The kids pointed. “Look, it’s wrong!” “I know, kiddos, I have my watch on. I’ll take care of timing today.” “Look, it’s moving!” Sure enough, the clock was ticking, ticking, ticking along. But instead of seconds going by, the minute hand was moving steadily through its circles. Oh, I was so mean to insist they keep practicing their keyboarding skills on the computer when something so exciting was happening to the clock!!
One of the computers in my classroom pod was stuck in an endless loop of its boot-up cycle. I turned it off and called helpdesk. I had to: the kids were staring at it as it went through its cycle over and over and over and over again. I couldn’t imagine this being so entertaining, but I guess it was better than math class.
7 times 4 is — look! A spider! The girl nearest the spider panicked, turned so flushed I thought she’d throw up. Five – brave souls came running up to stomp it, followed by their best friends not wanting to miss anything. Solution? I picked it up and let it loose in the hallway to terrorize the girls’ bathroom across the hall.
Poor Charlotte. She never gets any respect. I know how she feels.