Well, that was a rough day!

When the day starts with your co-teacher being out, a false fire alarm before the first bell, and a student being escorted off campus by police for hitting a counselor, you know it's going to be an interesting day.

Friday was an interesting day. 

An interesting A day....

No, Friday was an exceptional day. 

In my co-taught Geometry class (now flying solo), I had a student trying to throw crocs in the air to get them stuck on top of the hanging lights. The crocs belonged to another student who had run out the door and seemed to think I was doing extra for not allowing him to play his music out loud when "it wasn't bothering anyone else!"

And Computer Science was loud and raucous afterward! CS!

I was frazzled by the time my most difficult class of the day arrived (4A) and they lived up to their reputation. I plucked a kid's phone after she sprayed perfume and said I'd give it back once she at least logged in to the computer. I half thought she was going to try and fight me for it before she logged in 10 minutes later. The lack of control of the classroom reminded me of being at LMA, but with more kids and without the structures and admin support inherent to that program.

It was the hardest day of the year so far (and hopefully will remain so!).

I thought one incident from my 4A happened that day, but upon checking my email it happened two classes later. I already started a write-up, so I decided to lump it in here while I'm venting.

While I tried to fight a generalized supreme apathy toward math, school, and effort in general, I had one girl call her mom in the middle of class. She started a loud conversation as I tried to give the notes for the day. I try to limit my whole-group instruction to 15 minutes or smaller increments, because I know there's going to be focus issues. But any instruction was too much for her when she had things she needed to do. There was only a small amount of time left in the day and the student loves to skip, so I didn't want to throw

I tried to call home after class, but the phone number in the computer was disconnected. So I had to settle for an email afterward saying, "That voice you heard in the background of your daughter talking? That was me trying to tell her to put away her phone, so I could continue teaching the class." 

We've had 30 days of school at the time I write this. Cell-phone girl has missed 15 days of class, been late 8 times, has 8 missing grades including the Unit test, resents the Assistant Principal for going into the bathroom to find when people are skipping, but is still passing because she's turned in four assignments and got 50% credit on everything else because of the new grading policy.

Her mom must have been at least a little upset, because she asked what her daughter needed to do to improve her grade. I sent a list of some of the missing assignments that the girl promptly did not do. She did do 11 minutes of work Thursday morning and told her mom that she made up a bunch of assignments. I wrote back with a screen shot saying, "She did jack-diddly-squat," but that didn't change anything. 

An Assistant Principal checked in with the student and she was supposed to do makeup work over the weekend and check in with me on Monday before class to talk about what happened if she wanted to avoid ISS (In-School-Suspension). 

She never showed up to talk and she never showed up to class. She was listed tardy for 1st block and then absent the rest of the day.

Clearly, she must have felt so remorseful she didn't feel like she could face me (or any of her other teachers).

That was sarcasm.

But that's an example of some of my A-Day shenanigan's. It reminds me of some of my stories back from when I was a substitute teacher (I'll not soon forget a 3rd grader telling me, "This is why our teacher cries."). One of the louder students just moved so it's a little more manageable, but the struggle is real.

Meanwhile, my B-Days feel more like typical school. There are masks and a slight increase in the average personal bubble size, but I feel like those are going well. 

The school board seems to recognize it's a challenging year, because they added 5 new teacher workdays to the calendar. Some of those are converted early release days and others are new 'holidays' outright. I'm a fan! I haven't met a teacher yet who doesn't like the decision.