Week 13: Nov 7th to Nov 12th

This week has been alright. Actually, I think that it has gone very well overall, it’s just that today was a little bit rough and I’ve noticed that when you have one rough day in just one period, it can cloud the rest of the day. And actually, it wasn’t even that bad…they were only a little too talkative in third and fourth period again so I rearranged the assignment to be silent work, held them in during the break between the block, and made sure that they were able to get their work done in spite of the chaos that threatens to reign occasionally. This time they actually submitted to silent work without a lot of resistance, which was really nice. Although, I have to admit that it was extremely amusing when an irate older sister of one of my students came charging in after school to yell at me. She informed me, under no uncertain circumstances, that it was against school policy to keep students for more than a minute after the bell. It was fascinating to watch this guardian sister turn purple and swell with indignation for the injustices suffered by her baby sister. I listened politely to her ranting and then stated quite clearly that actually that particular guideline is only applicable when students need to leave your class to go to another. Since it is a block class I have every right to retain my students during the break so they can work and make up for the time they lost talking. I told her that several other teachers have done the same thing for classes who waste time (including her own—Miss Yeager) and it compromised no rules whatsoever. This calmed her down considerably, and when she asked me if I could only hold those students who were the most disruptive back and let the well-mannered students go, I simply told her that when the majority of a class is misbehaving then the consequences must fall on all of the students. If those students who do well feel that it is unfair, then I would hope that they would resolve it with their classmates by encouraging them to behave. She accepted my response, told me that she wasn’t sure she understood correctly before and just needed to clear up a few things, and then strolled out of my classroom, head held high and a sheepish little sister in tote. I know she desperately wanted me to take her seriously, but honestly, it was all I could do not to laugh until she was gone. I only hope that I don’t have any parents out there simmering as badly. If there are, it may not be so funny.