Little People, Big Trouble

About a month ago, Teach for America and Apple generously donated Apple iPads to the entire Phoenix corps for use in the classroom. This iPad has been an awesome tool for my own use (it has my grade book, calendar etc.) and for use in the classroom. I have used the iPad as an incentive for good behavior and as an intervention strategy with my lower students (imagine learning sight words or practicing math on an iPad... SO cool)!

Needless to say that a few weeks after it's arrival in the classroom it went "missing." I quickly thought back to the last time I saw it... ClassKlepto was trying to put it in his backpack after school (I quickly reclaimed the iPad and drove him out of the room). "AHHHH HA!" I thought, I had my primary suspect. He must have come back into the room after I left.

ClassKlepto is a master of lies and trickery. No one ever answered the home phone, notes home mysteriously disappeared and to top it off... no one at home (except for the 11 year old brother) speaks English.

After an intense interrogation the morning after I saw him try to put the iPad into his backpack, I felt drained. ClassKlepto was found temporarily innocent of all charges... and I now had 3 new suspects (provided at random by ClassKlepto). Odd...

An hour later Klepto was interrogated by a colleague (admittedly much more intimidating than I) to whom he quickly (within 3 minutes) confessed that the iPad was at home IN HIS CLOSET!!! Whaaaaattt....

Within a few hours, two of my coworkers had retrieved the iPad from ClassKlepto's closet. While there, they also had the pleasure of meeting Klepto's Mom, Dad AND Brother (all of whom ClassKlepto had claimed were at work or in school).

Flash forward to today. ClassKlepto just spent 2 days in in-school suspension and is now standing in the bus line with ITeachFor. A few seconds later, ClassKlepto is dragged over to me by a colleague with two stuffed toys in hand which ClassKlepto admitted to stealing from the school library. The kid hadn't learned his lesson.

Luckily for me, this week was parent/teacher conference week. Although I doubted that ClassKlepto's family would show up to their appointed time slot... THEY DID. Mom, Klepto AND the English-speaking older brother!

The conference lasted an astounding 40 minutes. I told Mom about Klepto's disruptive behavior in class, steaing etc. - the language barrier was crushed and this woman was now officially "in the loop." Klepto is officially BUSTED.