Picture Books, Attitudes, and Voicemail Systems

Today I spent the entire day on the revision of the girls' picture books. I taught them the 5 questions of revision, (Who, What they want, But, So, and Then what?) and I gave back their drafts so that they could revise.
7a were dolls about the whole thing. We had such cute discussions about different books that were written terribly. E.F.G. was especially interested here. She had a ton to offer on the topic.
The girls were on the edge of seats, waiting to get their drafts back, but I refused to give them back until the end of the lesson. I basically remembered the different plots of the girls, and the were thrilled whenever I made a reference to their books.
When I gave the drafts back, the girls began working on them right away.
In the 7b class, all I got was opposition. They kept interrupting my lesson, and when I finally gave the papers back, you had to hear the commotion going on as the girls began complaining about the amount of work they'd now have to put into revising their books.
L.K. especially, had such an attitude, that I was horrified. She began yelling at me about how her mother was going to call the principal to complain.
I lost it then. I got up and told them that if I had to keep dealing with this type of attitude, I was going to give them the entire thing to do for homework. I didn't come to school every day to deal with this.
I told them that if they thought calling the principal was the right thing to do, they were more than welcome to do so. Not that they needed my permission, they did it anyway. I asked L.K. if she thought she was threatening me by telling me this. I asked her if she thought I still had no clue that her mother called school on almost a daily basis.
She tried to have a staring contest with me, but I was the founder of the "staring teachers down" idea, so she didn't get anywhere far.
The class was shocked at my speech.
R.H. said that it wasn't fair that they weren't given all the lessons at once. They kept hearing things in bits and pieces. I told them honestly that I got the lessons in pieces and that I was just as confused as they were. I was honest, I told them that I didn't have all the answers all the time, and that if they had a question that I couldn't answer, they should take it to the principal. The girls were so shocked that I was so calm about them going to the principal. They were totally caught off guard.
They quickly turned the complaint into, " but we can never get through to the principal! She's always so busy!"
They got into the talk of having a voicemail system to get through to all the important people out there. I explained to the girls how a voicemail system worked.
When they asked how I knew so much on the topic, I told them that that's what my father did for a living and that my parents had one in their home.
They asked for the number so that they could call. I refused to give it to them, but I promised that if they would work on revising now, I would show it to them after class.
As soon as 4:15 came, I took out my cell-phone and called. The girls got a big kick out of it.
Now I'm waiting for the calls from the parents to come.