Recent and not so recent news.

Yesterday I took my class on a field trip to Trout Lake. Trout Lake is a nature center in our tiny little town, so it was a trip that was affordable for our low income students as well as close to home. It becomes difficult to take kindergartners too far from home without changes of clothes and all that good stuff.

I separated the children into two groups, giving the well behaved students to the parent chaperons and teaching assistant, while keeping the, for lack of a better phrase, not-so-well behaved children for my group.

The trip seemed to go relatively well. Unlike my other co-workers I decided I was taking every child in my class whose parent would sign a permission slip. The other four kindergarten teachers at the school left behind their troubled children. Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment. Sue me.

Each group of children was led about the facility by a kindly old woman who was anywhere from sixty to eighty years old. They did their best to educate the students about local habitats and animals. The fantastic children were angels, and the rotten children were rotten. On more than one occasion I had to stop the guide's lesson and take over as my minions were being rude and disrespectful.

It's a shame that over half my class was in my group. It seems no matter what I try, this core group of children just won't respond to any teaching method or behavior modifications. Aside from bribing them with food all day long, I can hardly get them to sit still and listen.

I cannot tell a lie. When the little old woman showed my group the alligator in the lake, malicious thoughts crossed my mind.

OH HUSH! I'd never hurt any of my babies... rotten or not.

I just wish I could find a way to reach them. And as far as I can see, that's not likely to happen in nine months time with me when they're coming from five to six years of horrible learned behaviors from their home environments.

I'll keep fighting the good fight, though. Even if I can reach one of them, it'll be worth the blood, sweat, and tears.