Thursday I was in a classroom I have been in once before. I also have known some of the kids for a long time. Last time it was kind of a tough day. This time I felt quite comfortable with this class and we had a really good day.
As I have mentioned before, I sometimes give a little prize at the end of the day. Yeah, I am one of those subs. This can be a tough job and if it costs me $3 to have a good day, I'm totally okay with that.
I keep an assortment of CHEAP prizes in my sub bag, which I will lay out at the end of the day for students to choose. Typically I will have them come up two or three at a time after they get their backpacks and are ready to go. On this particular day a student asked me for help and, as I felt comfortable with the students, I walked away to help.
While cleaning up, after bus duty, I realized that there were WAY more than 22 prizes gone. Usually I don't put too many out, but I just pulled everything out this time, for some reason. So there were more than 60 items gone.
I feel like it is my fault because I should have stayed there, or stopped the line while helping someone else. I also should not have put out so many things. But, I still shouldn't expect theft from elementary students.
I can't decide if I should talk to the teacher about it or talk to them about it at the end of this week when I am scheduled to come to the same class again. Or just chalk it up as a lesson for myself. I am leaning toward the last one, but I also don't think kids should get away with stealing. What to do, what to do?
I sometimes offer a prize if the kids get the project done by the end of the day, with certain instructions of course. You can't give me a sloppy mess and expect a prize.
