Judge J and the Court of 4th Grade

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to attend a Tools for Teaching Workshop. It honestly was very fascinating and I have applied many of the things I learned over the summer into my classroom. One of the things I have added this year was the Telling Jar. If you teach you probably know that tattle telling is a very popular thing to do if you are a child. Now before I go any further I have a rule on tattle telling that I have used in previous years, which is "You are not allowed to tattle tell on someone if they are not hurting you, someone else, or themselves." I overall like my rule, but when I moved from first to fourth grade, I found that the children had a harder time getting over the drama.

So, this year I put in what is called the Tattle Tell Jar. During the school day if something happens that is really bothering a child, that child is allowed to write on a piece of paper what is bothering them and put it in the jar. At the end of the day if there is anything in the jar, I will pull the slips of paper out. First I will ask the child if they are still bothered about what they wrote on the paper, if they are I will read the paper and as a class we will talk out the situation and make everything better. This has worked wonderfully, we have only used the jar one time this year.

Today after arriving back from music class there were a number of unhappy children, it seems that they were having some issues with the drama. One of the children was extremely hurt, so I opted to have what the children call court earlier during the day versus the end. Court is how he handle the drama in the telling jar. I put the four children in different corners of the room and gave them an opportunity to give their own side of the story without interruptions. I explained to the children that Judge J. was going to call some witnesses, and that the witnesses were students who were not the best friends of the people standing because I need unbiased opinions of what happened.

I call to the stand Margaret. Margaret walks up to the middle of the class and I ask, "Margaret, were you in music class today?"

I know this seems like a silly question, it is. The entire class giggles, which is good because it causes everyone to relax some and those standing to not feel so upset or angry at someone.

Margaret answers, "yes."

"Did you hear Celine say something to Cosmas today during music?"

"No, I wasn't sitting near them."

Oh well, that witness didn't work out to well. "Okay Margaret, you may go sit down."

I call my next witness "Adrian."

"Adrian were you in music class today."

Again with the giggles, "yes."

"Did you hear Celine say anything to Cosmas today?"

"No" not even waiting for anything he turns around and goes back to his seat.

"I would like to call my next witness, Ambrose."

"Ambrose were you in music class today."

Again with more giggles, "yes."

"Did you hear Celine say something to Cosmas today?"

"Yes."

"Can you repeat what Celine said?"

"Cosmas, Cosmas we are not allowed to use those." (Cosmas was trying to clean his recorder during music class. Cosmas is new and did not know he is not allowed to clean the recorder during class.)

"Celine, is that what you said?"

"Yes."

"Ambrose did Celine say this in a nice or mean way?"

"I'm not exactly sure, I couldn't tell."

"Celine diid you mean to say what you said to Cosmas in a mean or nice way?"

"In a nice way, I didn't want him to get in trouble."

"Okay Celine, Ambrose had a hard time telling, so do you understand what Cosmas thought you were being mean to him and maybe bossy?"

"Yes."

"Please apologize to Cosmas."

Celine apologizes, one down a few more to go.

"Ambrose what did Cosmas say in return to Celine."

"Leave me alone."

"Did he say this in a mean or nice way?"

"Mean."

"Cosmas did you yell at Celine and tell her leave you alone."

"Yes, but I really meant to say you are not the boss of me."

"Cosmas, remember two wrongs do not make a right, if someone says something you don't like, you need to tell the teacher. It does not give you permission to yell at them and now you know Celine was only trying to help you so you did not get in trouble. Cosmas will you go and apologize to Celine."

Cosmas and Celine apologize and Cosmas hugs Celine for what he did. Celine returned to her desk and made Cosmas a card saying she was sorry. Court was working out rather well, but I still had two students standing.

Agnes was getting quite annoyed and was demanding her side of the story be retold. Before allowing her to tell it again, I decided that we ask if any of the people are still angry with Jospeh.

"No."

"Okay, Joseph you may go sit down. It seems that you are forgiven for whatever you have done."

"Now, Agnes before you tell your side of the story please know Judge J. is going to be very honest with you when you are done because you are using up my class time to retell your side which you have already done."

"I know." Agnes tells the whole story over.

"Agnes, Judge J. is very good at her job, you see Celine and Cosmas have apologized to each other already and have forgiven each other. Now the problems in music was between the two of them, it had nothing to do with Agnes."

"I know."

"Agnes you should have never joined in on their problem."

"I was trying to stick up for Cosmas."

"That was very nice of you to want to do that, but you see in the end a small problem has become such a big problem. You were also telling Celine what to do. Remember our reading from the other week about removing the log from someones eye, and how we must first remove the beam from our own eye first?"

"Yes."

"Well, Agnes you were yelling at Celine and telling her what to do because she was telling another student what to do. That is not fair, you can't correct someone by doing the same wrong thing to them that they are doing to someone else. Now please go and apologize to Celine for yelling at her."

The lesson of the day: stay out of other people's drama, it only makes things worse.