"He almost fought me for it" or "Notes from the sub"

All three of the staff here were out for a training yesterday. Predictably, things were a bit bumpy here. Third period, which is usually a very good period for me, is when I teach social skills (how to make friends, how to have a conversation, etc) to Trains!, Let's Ride Bikes and Headache. Apparently, the Magician came in at the beginning of class (having left his language arts class in a huff) and was really "entertaining". He's a student that can get everyone else off-task while participating in class himself. So Trains! barely did any work because he was paying attention to the Magician, Let's Ride Bikes took apart a ruler and used a piece of metal to tear up paper, and Headache played with a rubber band ball until he dropped it and it was picked up by the substitute. She told him he could have it at the end of class. The sub claims, "he almost fought me for it," at which point she called for an administrator who straightened him out and then he was, apparently, extremely pleasant for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, we learned about the Escalation Cycle and how to interrupt it as well as power struggles and trauma. It was definitely useful.