The Three Musketeers from Hell!!!

There are these four kids in my six period class who make up Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan from hell. They are really sweet kids but they drive me up the wall sometimes. We'll assign the role of d'Artagnan to the least annoying of the three- he's actually a really smart kid and just kind of gets caught up with the other Musketeers. Because they have the same initial, we'll call the two who got detention today Athos and Aramis. They are also good kids but tend to get caught up in the instigation of Porthos, who we'll call our final kid. Athos and Aramis also tend to shout things out in class without raising their hand, which is very disrupting to everyone else. So both Aramis and Athos got three days of detention- today, tomorrow and Thursday. I let them work on their homework for half an hour but they first had to write me an essay for half an hour telling me why their got detention and what they were going to do in the future to not get a detention anymore. I found them oddly amusing and information, so I thought I'd recreate them here.

There is Athos's essay:
The reason I'm in this detention is because I talk too much in class without raising my hand. I shout things at other people, like [Porthos] always is calling me "she" and "fish" so I tell stuff back at him. I always blurt out in class although I have an answer to the questions. I'll try to not yell out in class by ignoring everybody else, if they have to say something bad to me, especially when [Porthos] calls me a girl or a fish or tells me to go back to the ocean. I'll try to raise my hand instead of blurting out the answer or something I have to say. In the future I'll try to be a smarter and better kid to know what's wrong or bad and I'll try not to talk with anybody else when the teacher doesn't want us talking, only if I'm working with a partner or doing a presentation. I'll raise my hand instead of blurting out and shouting out answers andI'll try to ignore [Porthos] so I won't shout back or get distracted or into trouble.

And here is Aramis's essay (see the similarities....):
I got a detention because at first I was goofing around and then [Porthos] called [Athos] a fish and so I laughed a lot and then that's how I got detention. I will not get detention by not goofing around in class or by not disturbing the teacher. And also by not laughing at [Portho's] jokes. I won't get detention because you have to stay one hour after school and I dont' like that. I think in the future I won't get detention because Iwill try not to get it and I will do what the teacher tells us to do. And I also think I won't be getting detention because I'm gonna focus on working hard because I want to get good grades because right now my grades aren't good and I'm going to try to raise them up. And that's how I'm not going to get detention. And I hope this is the last time I'll get detention.

Hm.... let's list the similarities. 1) Talking out in class and goofing around. 2) It seems like Porthos is the real instigator and maybe if HE gets the detention, he'll stop goofing around and the other two will calm down a little bit. 3) Neither of them want detention anymore..... 4) I think that they're both trying... hopefully two more days of detention will help.

I've found that when the class is working on a group project or with partners, it's so much more productive when one is on one side of the room, the other is working with d'Artagnan on the other side of the room and one, usually poor Athos is outside working by himself. I hate having to send Athos outside so often but unfortunately, it's usually the best way to get him to work. I'm still working on some sort of a system to keep them separated and engaged and not driving me or the rest of the class crazy!