At 4:45pm, I got into my car and SCREAMED out of frustration...

It was that kind of day. It did not start that way, though. My day can be broken into two parts:

1.) Good, funny, and awkward
2.) Bad, not funny, awkward

Let’s talk about the good part of the day first.

My first period class was going well. I had students working in different groups. Suddenly, an announcement came on from the principal. He was telling teachers to remember to make sure students adhered to the dress code. Apparently, the “guys are doing better than the girls.” Then he came back on, seconds later, and said that teachers should be on the look out for two girls wearing plaid shirts and some “tights or something.” He continued, “Some of the costumes people are wearing to school are completely inappropriate.” He told teachers to look out for those two girls because they had been sent to the infractions room for not following the dress code, but they had left; therefore, they obviously “could not follow directions.” I don’t know why, but this announcement was absolutely hilarious to me.

Next, a student who had not been to my class at all this year finally came in. After a conversation with him about why he should be in school, I finally got him to do some work. I felt really good about our conversation, and I was happy to see him working with the other students. Then, I heard an announcement over the loud speaker saying that I was supposed to be chaperoning a field trip. What?! Pause.

This is a reminder that you should ALWAYS read every email from your boss/administration carefully.

Okay, back to the story. Luckily, I share a room with another teacher, and she was in there doing work. I explained the homework to the students, and rushed out. The field trip was actually really good. It was an exhibit showcasing how African Americans have made a huge impact on American society and culture throughout our history. Imagine that: something about Black folk outside of February! I see you Atlanta!!

Okay, I’m not going to speak about the bad part of the day that much because I have ranted enough about it; however, I’ll give brief highlights:
• I had to go pull two students into my class who didn’t want to be there—like I literally went into the hall, chased them down, and told them to get into my classroom.
• I gave three students “mandatory tutorial” (detention) for coming to class with unexcused tardies (this includes the two students I had to go get); however, these students thought it was just a suggestion and I had to make it clear to them that it was not.
• These three students continued to disturb my class despite the fact that I went up my consequences list, and eventually had to tell one student to step outside.
• That student then ran away down the hall—only to be brought back by a hall monitor 10 minutes later.
• Another student got up and left 5 minutes before the period was over because he did not want to get his detention.
• The third student that had detention crumpled up the paper, and ran as he left the room.
• The student that was returned to my class threw his detention on the floor and ran away as well.
• The phone numbers that I have for them are wrong, so I was unable to call parents tonight. I have to get the correct numbers tomorrow so that I can call their parents as I told them I would.

All of this happened while I was being observed by my district instructional coach. We had a good debriefing afterward, though. Positive: she said the lesson plan was good, and that I was consistent and calm with my consequences.

Still, I definitely need to figure out something different to do in that classroom. Although most of the students behave well (or at least improve their behavior after consequences), I am having some problems with those three students. It would be easy to just blame it on their attitudes; however, while that might be part of it, it is still on me to figure out a way to work with them and help them reach their full potential. I have seen each of them do something right, and I’m sure there is still a lot where that came from—I just have to do a better job of reaching for it.