Thanks, Teenster.
The kindergarten thing makes the age thing a little more separated (not to mention they don't have a full grasp on age past kid, teenager, adult, grandma-age), but I do completely agree that some kids see the back table (where the no recess kids sit for lunch/recess) can become a party table if their friends get it. In fact, I've even seen a kid not-so-subtly-right-in-front-of-me tell their friend to do something to get to the back table so they could sit together sicne the other one was already there.
Yeah, the kids haven't stopped their behavior for the principal or anyone else in the class except maybe my cooperating teacher, especially if she is right there or gets involved. I'm not sure if this principal would really be of assistance or not. Soon enough I'm going to need to have her come observe me though for a letter of rec for my placement file so I suppose having her come in early and explaining some of this to her might help.
The back table is kind of a joke but as much as I have thought of having them stay in the classroom with me I wonder if that would be good for my sanity for after lunch time. Maybe I go eat lunch in the teachers lounge (I think 15 minutes) and then go get them to have them put their heads down at their table in class for the recess time. This would at least ensure that the stinkin' lunch teachers wouldn't send them out to recess anyway. I guess I can ask my teacher about that one. Some of them really hate missing recess. I'm not sure about some of them though because they put on this tough attitude where they say "I have recess at home" so I'm not sure if they are just playing me or if they really don't care.
