Girls Are Mean!

I had school again this morning.  After yesterday's field trip, I found myself somewhat reluctant to go back to the classroom.  While I realized that was what I signed up for, a part of me wished I was solely over here on vacation, instead of the "working vacation" I signed up for.  Sigh.  Guess I'll have to get over that wish pretty quickly!

The morning was fairly uneventful.  Students worked on map coordinates, I read with a handful of individual students for their weekly oral check, and then they worked on posters for next week's charity fundraiser.  After lunch, we returned to the classroom for the afternoon's PPS, which is two hours of weekly music, French, and spelling (and no, I have no idea what PPS stands for).  Music began, and I could see there were two little girls who were making faces at each other and arguing a bit.  I directed them back to their music teacher, and it stopped for a little while.  After music, students went to another room for their French lesson.  Again, the same two girls were having issues.  When I went to ask them what the matter was, one of them started crying and telling me how mean the other was. I separated the two and they went on with French.  Finally, spelling began as the last 40 minutes of the day, and it just so happened that the two girls were partnered up for that period.  As you can imagine, it created quite a problem and they were separated again by their spelling teacher after I told her there had been issues with them all afternoon. 

After spelling was over, it was time to go home.  I ushered the class back to their room and as everyone was cleaning up and preparing to leave, I noticed several girls standing round a poster at the front of the room.  All the girls were scratching out words on the poster, using a poster.  I was curious as to what they were up to, so I went over and asked what they were doing.  Apparently, one of the girls who had been having problems with the other had gotten all of her girl friends to remove themselves from a club the other girl was a leader of.  The club leader got wind of it and got quite upset, causing a stir all over again.  A few teachers got involved, there were more tears shed, and lots of shouting before one of the girls stormed off and the other left with her mother who had come to pick her up.  What a mess!  I suppose more time will be spent tomorrow trying to deal with that. 

All I could think the entire time was how mean those girls were being to each other.  I thought back to when I was in fourth grade and realized not much has changed.  Girls are mean!  They can be downright vicious, actually.  As my hostess said to me this afternoon, it's funny, because boys just have a fistfight and then they are friends.  Girls play mind-games and get others involved, and it can be quite the emotional breakdown of the one being bullied.  It's really sad, actually, because those kind of hurt feelings can stick with you for quite a long time, years actually, depending on how brutal it is.  I still remember a few instances that occurred in elementary school with me, and  even now if I have lingering feelings of dislike for those girls (women now, I suppose).  I can only hope that as a teacher I will be more aware of what is going on and create a sense of community in my classroom, so things like that don't get entirely out of hand like they did today.

On that note, I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! Adieu!