3rd grade punishment

I forgot about this lovely tidbit when I was writing Friday.  I started my day with 2nd grade.  While I was teaching, I heard some serious chaos going on in the next room (3rd grade).  I continued my lesson.  It go to the point, however, that I could no longer ignore it.  I thought maybe Ulises (the 3rd grade teacher) was playing a game or something (which does not happen in classrooms in Mexico, only PE), so I walked over to make sure (thankfully I had gotten 2nd grade started on their work).  No Ulises.  Only 5 students in the room and they all had brooms or mops of some sort and were battling.  I kid you not.  I asked them to quiet down (I had no idea why they were there and I'm not yet to the point where I question what's going on) since I couldn't teach over their ruckus (I don't know the Spanish word for ruckus...yet)!  They laughed at me.  That paged Señorita Klapheke from deep within.  We had a long conversation about respect and how they had lost mine and that they would have to earn it back.  Blah blah blah.  American babble that makes American students feel guilty and sad.  They just laughed again and went back to fighting.  I proceeded to take away each broom and mop and send them from the room.  I don't know where they went, but it wasn't my concern.  They had been unsupervised when they were bothering me; now they could be unsupervised when they were not bothering me.

When it was time to change classes, Ulises asked me if I were coming to his room next (I walk o the teachers' room between classes to trade out my folders/papers/CDs and to mentally prep for the next class).  I told him yes but relayed the cliffs notes version of what had happened.  He said they were being punished.  They couldn't go to PE, so they had to stay in their room.  A lot of good that seemed to do!  I started class with all 5 of them, letting them know that if they chose to act up one single time, I would be with them all through recreo.  They wouldn't be in their room with their teacher, nor unsupervised; they would be with me.  I had no problems.