Don't Underestimate the Coniving Eight-Year-Old

So, I have this fabulous student named Samantha, who I absolutely adore. In fact, I had her brother last year.

Her brother had an attention problem and was a resource student. I remember one time when I took him outside to talk to him privately about listening and following directions. When I asked, "Do you understand what I'm telling you?" he looked at me and said, "Your hair looks funny in the wind."

Anyway, Samantha is MUCH brighter than her brother, but has similar tendencies toward distraction. She's constantly playing with her hair or looking closely at her shoes, etc. She's very bright, but I've also caught her several times being malicious. The first week of school, one of my students was reading in a chair and she walked over and simply pushed him off of it. I still have no idea why.

Yesterday, I was having problems with her during centers cheating at the games or laughing when other people only rolled a one, etc. I pulled her aside to talk to her about her behavior. Her eyes began welling up with tears and she took on this wounded puppy dog look. It was heartbreaking, but I get a special thrill when my talks result in an emotional response. As I was finishing, I saw her lips quiver and suddenly she BEGAN LAUGHING. She was FAKE crying. She had learned already how to fake cry. I could not believe it.

So- sweet little girl, or spawn of Satan? Hard to say.

(On a tangental note, this reminded me of my youth when I cried over everything [I still do]. My dad used to tell me I was "turning on the waterworks", but I honestly felt like my crying was justified every time-- him telling me I was faking just made me feel even more sorry for myself and cry harder. This child really does just turn it on.)