Apologizing, Part 2

The first apology this week came from me.  Read about it here.

The next four apologies came from four boys who thought making and throwing a paper airplane around the classroom in the middle of class would be a good idea.

I held them after class and talked to them about the choice they had made, and why it wasn't appropriate.  These are my 7th-graders.  They are good kids, and we have a good relationship.  I respect them, and they respect me.  But this is middle school and sometimes common sense is left at home.  Such was the case here.  I could tell that they weren't trying to be disruptive, but they just had the idea that a paper airplane would be really cool right then, so they made one.  Unfortunately, they had that awesome idea in the middle of class.

So I told them they needed to go home and write me a letter of apology, explaining what they were doing an why it wasn't appropriate in class.

Today I was surprised that three of them remembered and brought them up to me.  The fourth was held after during lunch where he had to write it for me then.

These kids are hilarious.  I really love my job. It's tough, but there are so many fun moments.  You can tell they are sincere in their apologies.  But they're middle school boys, and I laugh out-loud when I read some of their wording (which is why I always read it after the kids have left).

Here is an apology letter from one of my students.  He's had to write two for me before, and he had a really hard time writing them.  But he was the first to submit his today, which surprised me.  What did not surprise me was the crumpled up piece of paper he handed me, which was the back of one of his returned math assignments.  I was just proud of him for actually remembering to write the letter.  Keep in mind that they have to write half a page, and this student's handwriting is uncommonly small. Here's what he wrote (spelling fixed):

Sorry Miss Draper for throwing paper airplanes in your class and I should have been being paying attention in your class because I don't want to be separated from my friends because I don't want you picking that phone up and dialing my parents' phone number and then I get in trouble and [friend's name] will not write the letter I think because he told me in I-CAT so don't call my parents I am writing small this is going to take forever to write half the page and it is almost 2016 or not I can't wait for Christmas and if you call my parents I won't get nothing for my birthday.