Just Ignore it

In the middle of our writing workshop today, I waited until all the kids were settled and working, had another teacher in the room working with a few students, and then slipped out for a quick bathroom break. You'd think all would go well for those two minutes, and often the kids are better when they don't even realize their teacher has left the room. Unfortunately, I returned to a class in an uproar with two kids standing on their chairs! Why? Because there was a spider on the ceiling. Sure, it was a hairy wolf spider, but seriously, it was on the ceiling. I told them they had nothing to worry about, needed to ignore it, and realize that the chances of that spider falling from the ceiling was slim to none. They needed to get back to work.

Thirty minutes or so later, while everyone was working on a poem for their poetry books, I hear a scream and suddenly students are scattering and causing quite the commotion. Well, that spider dropped from the ceiling and landed on one of their desks! Of course they freaked out, that would've scared the crap outta me! One brave soul tried to catch the creepy eight legged creature, but I steered her away from it, because I'm pretty sure they bite. But as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. We had no idea where the spider went. Try to get a class of 4th graders back on task when there's a spider running fiercely around the classroom... yep, it doesn't work. There was no pulling them back. Finally, when students started to settle down and a few were working away from the desk where the spider disappeared from, another student yells out, "There it is!" And everything goes right back into chaos mode.

Thankfully this time, I was able to capture it and send it outside with two students who were eager to release it. However, bringing the class back into a learning mode those last 15 minutes of the day was pretty much impossible.

Is it Friday yet?