text: [Themes: edutainment, humor, socially important]
  
  Welcome to class! You greet your new first graders at the door with a smile, offering them a high five as they step foot into the classroom you have painstakingly decorated with colors and shapes of all kinds. Most of the kids look around with awe and excitement and eagerly take their seats next to friends. You notice one little girl avoids eye contact as she shuffles to a desk sporting the name tag "Emma". She quickly buries her head into her arms as to avoid looking at the other children, and you notice her shoulders quiver with her muffled sobs. What do you do?
  
  [Author's Note: It's your first day of teaching alone! You're very excited to help your 1st graders advance their reading skills, master basic math concepts, and develop grammar. As the day wears on, you begin to question your career choice. Little Emma came to school crying and hasn't stopped, Tommy throws things when it comes to reading, and Kyle refuses to sit down after recess. These kids have you on your wits end!]
  
  > talk to Emma while the class isn't paying attention to see what's wrong.
  You decide to talk to Emma and see what's wrong. You kneel beside her desk and wrap an arm around her shaking shoulders, introducing yourself and inquiring what's wrong. At first, she doesn't seem to want to talk. You decide to tell her a little bit about yourself; you grew up in Canada and you really love your pet cat, Mrs. Norris. The mention of your cat seems to brighten Emma up a little. She tells you that she just moved from Oregon and has a dog named Fang. You realize that if she just moved, she also had to leave her friends. You tell her that Fang sounds really cool, and introduce her to a group of nearby girls, hoping that Emma will become friends with them. You move her desk next to the other girls and suggest they talk about their pets at home.
  
  Social interaction and making friends are very important to a helping a child with depression. If they seem to have trouble relating to their peers, sometimes the teacher can become their friend and in turn help them make friends.
  
  In addition to making relationships, you can also:
  
  Use positive feedback. This will help boost the child's self-esteem.
  
  Offer accommodations. This may be more time for assignments, help with assignments if they're having trouble, etc. This is NOT lowering the standard.
  
  Provide Opportunities for Success. Play on Emma's strengths. If you realize she's good at reading and not so much at math, let her read aloud during story time and only call her on math if you know she has the correct answer.
  
  If all else fails, seek professional help through a school counselor.
  
  > Awesome, let's start class!
  Great, first crisis solved!
  
  The day goes smoothly for a little while. You start with a little social studies and have the kids talk about the neighborhoods they live in as well as their family members. After a while, the kids are released to recess. You take the time to prepare the next segment of your day, math. You'll start with basic addition.
  
  When the children come back inside, most sit down and do as you instruct. You notice Emma smiling with the girls you seated her next to. You also notice one boy running around the back of the classroom. You instruct the class to take their seat, but the boy refuses. You notice the only empty desk belongs to Kyle. You ask him to settle down, but he refuses to comply with your request. What action do you take?
  
  > ignore Kyle for now. Continue your lesson so you don't waste the other kids' time, and Kyle will join in when he realizes no one is paying attention to him.
  You ask Kyle to sit down once or twice, and he doesn't. Rather than getting in a fight with him, you ignore him and continue your lesson with the other kids. You offer them stickers when they get math problems right, and eventually Kyle joins in (because stickers are pretty cool, after all). All seems to be well in the classroom, even if Kyle had to bounce around for an extra 10 minutes. He gets Bs and Cs in math, and your average for the class is a B. Not bad.
  
  But it could be even better. The ten minutes Kyle is distracted and distracting the other kids can really add up. They could be learning even more. The school year continues and Kyle moves to 2nd grade, but he's a little behind, and due to his behavior, gets more behind as the years progress. It's a shame no one helped him get his defiance under control from the get-go.
  
  When dealing with children who have Oppositional Defiance Disorder, it is important to offer them choices so that they are responsible for their own behavior and can built their behavioral skills. You can also teach students an appropriate way to say no, such as "I don't understand, can you help me?" or "can we take a little break and do this in a minute?" If the child comes up with something to help them, honor it.
  
  At the same time, reward positive behavior! And also reward positive behavior of the classmates! If Kyle won't sit down, but Susie is, you can thank Susie for following the rules and maybe reward her with a sticker. If Kyle sees that doing good gets him things he likes, he will be more inclined to do it than he would be if you punished him.
  
  > On to reading!
  The day is almost over! You just have reading and grammar left to cover and then the little heathens -- I mean, angels -- will be free for the day! How hard can reading be, especially when it's about a bus driving pigeon? For your adult mind, this book is by no means a literary treasure, and you can guess the entire plot pages in advance. For the kids, however, it's a roller coaster of excitement. You clear your throat and try not to sound too mundane; enthusiasm for teaching makes enthusiasm for learning, after all.
  
  After the pigeon has tried to hijack the bus in almost every way imaginable, you decide to have Tommy make a prediction about what will happen next. The pattern is fairly clear, you think, but you know you'll praise Tommy for trying and having a great imagination. You ask him his prediction.
  
  "I don't know," he huffs.
  
  You press gently, requesting that he at least try.
  
  That's when Tommy explodes, his face going beet red. He jumps to his feet and his chair tips back with a loud crash, making Emma screech in fear. He grabs his copy of the picture book, and suddenly a printed pigeon is flying in your direction and smacking you right in the face.
  
  What course of action do you take?
  
  > brush off the pain in your nose and inform Tommy that is NOT acceptable (but in a calm fashion). He'll have to have a consequence for that, and you can't have him hurting you or scaring the other kids. He'll have to leave the classroom for a while.
  You did NOT see that coming.
  
  You manage to get the other kids to settle down and instruct them to finish reading about the bus hijacking pigeon on their own. Meanwhile, you and Tommy go and have a chit-chat in the hall. You again calmly tell him that throwing things is not acceptable, and then you try to get to the root of why he exploded. You doubt it's because he just doesn't like those nasty flying rats, and after talking with him a little while, you realize he is extremely lost when it comes to reading. You inform him that's okay! You're his teacher and you'll help him learn to read. He doesn't need to be embarrassed and throw things at you. You're a friend, not an enemy.
  
  When dealing with a child who has a tendency to have violent outbursts, prevention is the most important step. Learn what makes the child tick and then try to keep that from happening. You may have to take a short break from curriculum to let Tommy cool down if you feel he's getting frustrated. There is often times an underlying exceptionality to Behavioral Disorders like Tommy's, such as dyslexia or ADHD.
  
  As you start to help Tommy, make sure to encourage him and be an advocate for his success. This means lots of positive reinforcement for good behavioral changes. You can also enlist the parents as a partner, since Tommy may have outbursts as home as well, and they could help you treat them effectively.
  
  That's it! Your first day of first grade is complete! It had its rough spots for sure, but all the kids have a place in your heart. You can't wait to watch them grow and learn, and to help the ones that need it most.