Sophomores!

Period 4: Journal topic: What would happen if you could become invisible whenever you wanted to? What are some of the things you could do that you cannot do now?

Class started 5 minutes ago. "No sustained silent reading today because of the rally." I am shushing the class. Mark comes in late and I suddenly decide that he cannot continue to sit in the back and constantly talk with his friends. Lily in the front says, "I'll trade." I say, "Sure." Then I say, "Lily, you don't have any friends back there, do you?" Lily says, "I don't have any friends." Mark is now in the front. We'll see how that goes.

James is saying, "I can't find my journal." That means if it is truly not in the period 4 bin, he must look in 3 other bins with 30 journals in each one. Jackson comes in with a latte. I say, "no, no. I frown on bringing those things in." He says, "Sorry." "Where do the Sophomore go for rally?", someone asks. I don't know the answer to that. Then when the class is finally quiet and writing in their journals, the loudspeaker comes on with the daily announcements. Finally after that, it is quiet again. Wait- a little giggle. Someone is whispering to someone else in the class. Truely, this is my good sophmore class. All seem settled now, but in one moment I must jump up and stamp everybody's journal.

Period 6:
Jamie is telling me how she missed all of her vocabulary quizes and now she isn't ready for today's test. I asked her why she wasn't at tutorial. "My sister takes me to school." I say, "Well, tell your sister to take you to school on Tuesday and Thursday, the same time as Monday's and Wednesday. Brendan walks out without asking. Then comes back in. Max burbs and only Ben laughs. Many at this point have stopped writing, but the room is finally quiet and I am reluctant to break the silence. TJ gets up to wash his hands with the new santizer installed to curb the spread of H1-N1. The room is getting a little restless. Hanna (Haaana) is chatting with Jenna. Class must begin. Bryan is eating French fries in my "no eating" room.

After journal writing I mention that there were five people who came to tutorial and six that missed tutorial for getting less than 13 out of 20 on their vocabulary quizes. "Do you know who was suppose to be here?" I say. Tim says, "Last year you said that we had to come if it was twelve or fewer." Eva sheepishly raises her hand and says, "I forgot." I read the names of those who were suppose to be here, mistakenly calling Nathan's name. I hear somebody whisper, "It's because he Black." (very funny) Someone else says "I didn't know we were having a vocabulary quiz." Brenden says, "I was missing all last week." I reply, "And you didn't come to any tutorial?" "Every Thursday- without fail- a vocabulary quiz. " It's clear that more than a few are not prepared.

Then I am hand out a grammar lesson to give students practice in revising sentences with strong verbs. There is some mumbling, but I hear from out of the mouth of Brendan "...bald spot" and I know that he is talking about me. I confront him on it and he pleads innocence. I say, "Go outside." Then when I have a moment, I go outside and ask him what he was doing. He denies that he did anything wrong. I said, "What were you talking about?" He says, "It was private." I say, "OK, you can stay out here and think about it." I go back in and then bring him my behavior guidelines that label behaviour as "childish", "normal teenage behaviour" and "adult". This group of papers notes clearly that teenages sometimes challenge authority and sometimes make mistakes. But normal teenage behaviour is also to admit mistakes and say "I am sorry." when appropriate.

I come out to Brendan a little later. I say, "Did you understand what you read?" He says, "Yea, I understand it." "So...", I say. Eventually he says, "Do you mean that I should say, 'I'm sorry?'" I reply, "Only if you have done something disrespectful. Were you being disrespectful?" "Yes", he says. "I'm sorry." and puts his head down in complete sincerity. YES!!! small victories.

When I come back there is a nest in the corner- Paul, Hana, Jordyn, Jenna, Brett and Raffi. They take constant watching. They play, socialize and sneak food, now that this class has lost its eating priveledges. I hear a "Thawp!" and I look below the whiteboard and someone has shot a second large white spitball at the board. (At this point everyone is quietly listening to Obama's speech on education.) I see the direction but I do not know who it came from. I pick up the two wet wads stuck to the aluminum panel below the board. "YUK! still wet." I throw them in the trash. I get up and go over to Brett. "You know who shot those wads of paper." I say to him. "I didn't shoot any paper." He says. "I only said that you know who shot them." Then I walk back to my desk. I watch the corner carefully but noone dares try it again.

Hana says the speech was inspiring. And I believe her. And it seems that the class is a little more ready to move on and learn.