Wowza...
So this was probably the worst Thursday yet! Among the "lowlights" of today:
-We had our first lockdown drill ... the kids were good overall, but several took it too lightly and made a joke of it. We had to re-do the drill (in my class only) 2 times before it was decent enough to work in a real-life emergency.
-I'm getting meaner (more strict?) with the kids, and I don't like it. I'm not sure what else to do, though, to get them to stop all the dang talking.
-After a morning of disrespectful, annoying students, I ended up lecturing the whole class about their behavior. I went so far as to tell them that I'm relatively new to the profession (though I didn't say I'm a first-year teacher), and that I have already thought about quitting. A lot of them seemed shocked, and one boy promised to "shape up" and prove himself. Heh... that lasted all of an hour.
-Had our class meeting in the afternoon, which was a disaster. There was immense drama between 4 girls, and it escalated to the point where I had to physically restrain one girl to keep her in the classroom for our discussion. Illegal? I hope not.
-The students took a survey about me and their comfort in the classroom. To my dismay, a lot of the students didn't rate the safety/welcoming-ness of the room very high. :( Also, the general consensus is that my lessons aren't the clearest, nor are my grading policies. However, all but one student said I'm always fair and helpful. The students have spoken.
-At the end of the day, one boy became extremely frustrated. He ignored me, which I told him was not a good choice. I gave him two options: follow directions (picking up papers around his desk and packing up to go home, or going to the library to calm down), or receive a lunch detention. He opted to continue ignoring me. This all escalated to the point where he would not leave the classroom. I had to have three other staff members come in (one at a time), and only the last one was able to get him out of the room. Seems he's being harrassed by other students, and one teacher thinks he's suicidal. I tried calling his parents, but to no avail. Sigh.
That's all for now. Thank GOD tomorrow is Friday. After this week, I'm ready to take a few months off. :P
posted by Marybeth @ 6:08 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Yea for Fridays. The best moment of the week is that point on Friday where the kids have left for the day and you know that the weekend has begun.
what is a lockdown drill? what's not to laugh at? terrorism reaches rural AZ or something? =)
meaner/more strict is interesting. I doubt it's either. mean is hateful, with the intention of pointless pain. consider a definition of love, the desire to do good. whether the means of being stern is worth doing good or not lies in your court. what do you believe is good?
I wonder how conscious they are of disrespect. I wonder if honesty is the way to go? I think their world consists of fun and pain on a 15 minute basis.
I don't know what a class meeting is. sounds like they need the indian peace pipe!
student survey, eh? I guess I'd just say that not all "results" are proven to be "caused" by what may be indicated. not to mention, little kids are easily led into an answer depending on the wording of a question. just piss them off enough with a big word they are too embarrassed to ask about, or that they humble themselves to ask about, and they are negative enough to respond how they feel at that moment due to the survey and not the primary intent of the question at hand.
hmm... how did the 3rd staff member get him to move? distraction and trickery... know any magic? I donno, I was a fairly depressed little kid. I caused trouble because school was boring, the teacher was wrong, etc. I made a teacher cry because she pissed me off once, about something I still can't remember for the life of me. solve the puzzle, find the cause maybe? hard to say, but you are the expert now. =)
10 deep, slow breaths through the nose tend to help. did you know that in a battle, breathing properly is one of the hardest things to do... and yet, probably the most crucial?
with warm regards
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