Period 4- revisited

Tuesday, April 13

We are on a testing schedule today. In front of me is my fourth period class. I made some seating changes and it is a big deal for them. "Can't I sit here?" "I wanna sit over here." Then some just sit in the wrong place and wait and see if I notice. I am so ready to be done with this petty bull shit.

Then today in walks in Tanner. He is no longer a student in my class. He was transferred to the continuation school. Under the pretense that he wants to help another student he comes into my class. I ask him if he is enrolled. He says he has a sixth period here. I say, "This is fourth period." I ask him to please leave. He was giving me an argument, so I picked up the phone. Then he is freeking out. "I have to help A.J. with my assignment." "I am sorry, but you have to leave." I say. Finally the telephone threat makes him leave. I spoke to my friend Sandy, the Counselor, about this situation. She said that he had no class at our school at all and would talk to Brenda.

There is a pervasive bad attitude among about 5 students. It came to a point today where I insisted that we talk about it. I say something, then Kaitlyn repeats it. I call her outside. She admits that she repeated me but claims that it was not rude. Finally she did say that she was sorry.

We had a discussion during this brief period about the situation. The chief thorn in my side claims that she will give me attitude for the rest of the year because I gave her an Unsatisfactory citizen ship on her report card. At one time I told her she had better behavior, but she switches hot and cold. Her English teacher from last year also mentioned that "she was a piece of work- full of attitude." Then the "gang of five" chimed in about how I was picking on just them, when others misbehaved too. I had two defenders who chimed in. They both had perspectives that I agreed with. One said that these students were obviously "messing with me" and of course I would react to their bad behavior. Another said that I was too lenient in the beginning of the year. That is only partially true. I try to maintain a relaxed atmosphere and it worked well. Then with the addition of a new student (my friend in the previous paragraph)and the increase acting out of another student, the general atmosphere degenerated. With the discussion I could see that most students were on my side. But they are the quiet ones.

Thursday, April 15

I have changed the seating chart. There were a group of girls in the back who also used to converse on a regular basis. I separated them. As I begin class I am finding that the traditional problem people are not misbehaving. The biggest problem this period was that just about everyone had to take a bathroom break. One of my student, Jake, left for the bathroom early in the period and never returned. I called his mom, then wrote a referral to the vice principal. His mom said that she was going downtown to find him.