I could use that for something...

Probably just about every teacher has muttered those words at some point (I know I am most certainly guilty of it). And those words lead to cabinets, drawers, shelves, closets, nooks, crannies, and anywhere else that space is available to be filled up with random junk. But I can say that, as of last Friday, the only time my cabinets, drawers, and closets have ever been cleaner is when the school was brand new. I inherited my room 12 years ago, and I've organized and purged things from the previous resident here and there, but never to the full extent that I could have. It felt good last year to be able to downsize an entire filing cabinet full of master copies from my room. I had always told myself, "They were used by the last teacher, so I will probably use them, too." Some of it I did use, but the curriculum changes, and resources along with it. So it was time to dispose of the paper inside that hunk of metal and free up the space for things I was using. Just as it felt good to get rid of that filing cabinet, it also felt good to get rid of a lot of the stuff that was hiding in the closets, cabinets, and shelves. Hopefully that will help the person moving into my room easily transition her things into the space. Don't get me wrong, I do have a few things still in my storage areas, but it will be very easy come next Thursday afternoon to remove them. The rest of my classroom is currently "business as usual" because I want the kids to be able to focus on the academics we still have going on without saying, "Mr. Oetjen, what happened to the..." But behind most of the doors, sweet emptiness, ready for the next teacher. So if you are reading this and have heard yourself mutter those words, "I could use that for something," then I think you may want to seriously consider a purge of your own.

I have to share a chuckle from today, just as we were getting ready to go to recess. This is one of those "shake your head" situations you have when trying to reason with a stubborn student. The stubborn student, just so you know, is not the same one that I have blogged about in the past...but she is the one who brought the complaint to my attention, and it became very clear by the end of the encounter that attention was all she wanted :-)
Student A: "Mr. Oetjen, he spit in my hair and in my face!"
Me (not overly worried due to who was stating the complaint): "That's not very respectful...what was going on?"
A: "I was just standing in line, and he spit on me!"
Student B: "No, I didn't!"
Me: "Why does she think you did?"
B: "We were all standing in line and blowing in each other's hair and faces."
Me, looking at A's hair, which had no visible signs of moisture: "When he spit on you, was it a full-blown spit, or did your face get wet when he was blowing in it?"
A: "My face got wet."
B: "I didn't spit on you!"
Me, to both: "This seems like it was a very minor and accidental amount of spit."
B: "I didn't spit on her!"
Me, trying to bring science into the discussion: "When we breathe, very small amounts of water leave with the air. So it seems like when you were blowing in her face, a little bit of that water may have accidentally hit her face. I think a simple apology for accidentally spitting on her is in order."
B (like a broken record): "I didn't spit on her!"
Me: "Listen, we can spend the rest of recess time standing her having a discussion about the definition and degrees of spit, or you can accept the fact that there is a possibility that she may have accidentally gotten an incredibly small amount of spit on her face, and apologize."  No response...
Me: "Repeat after me, 'While I don't think I spit in your face, I'm sorry if I accidentally did.'"
B (grumbling): "While I don't think I spit in your face, I'm sorry if I accidentally did. But I didn't."
Me: "Try that again, a little nicer like you might actually mean it, and leave off that last part, because I didn't tell you to say that part."
B (not much better): "While I don't think I spit in your face, I'm sorry if I accidentally did."
Me: "Thank you."
B: "But I didn't spit on her."
Me: "Try it again, leaving out that part altogether."
B (with the same degree of sincerity as before): "While I don't think I spit in your face, I'm sorry if I accidentally did."
I waited to see if it would come...but it didn't!
A: "That's ok." (I detest it when a complainer receives an apology and then says, "That's ok.")
Me: "It's not ok. If it was ok, then you shouldn't have complained about the very small amount of water that accidentally hit you in the face. But you can tell him you accept his apology."
A: "I accept your apology."
Me: "Go to recess, and no more blowing in each other's faces."
B, to A, just as they were getting to the playground doors: "I didn't spit on you."
(Thank you, Bill Murray, for this exact example of what I was feeling.)

Mindfulness thought for the week: Just remember, when plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters.