News from the first week of school

Teaching is hard!

I'm the first one there and the last one to leave, but at least I'm not bringing any work home...

New teachers are judged by how many referrals they give. If you give too many, it means you don't know how to handle your class and you don't get rehired. I didn't know about this when I wrote my first referral. I don't care though- even though I wrote it over something trivial, I'd do it again. After I went apeshit on the first slightly defiant kid, the rest of the period was not so bad. There will still be lots of problems with my 6th period, but if I'm mean enough early enough, I think it might not be so bad. And I am kind of happy about breaking my referral cherry. And as much as I think Mt Eden is a nice place, I care less about being rehired than I do about helping the ones who want to learn. On Thursday, class really was a debacle. I had a group of kids talking constantly and I could NOT get them to shut up. They kept getting up and wandering around, messing with my stuff, writing on my overhead, yelling "why" every time I made a comment, and a variety of other stuff. It got to the point where everyone was talking and when that happens, you're doomed. I had a bunch of students yelling for everyone else to shut up, which really doesn't make things any better. But the worst part was noticing a few students quietly watching me. They weren't acting up or talking. They wanted to learn, but I just couldn't do a thing. But on the bright side, it was for their sakes that I was able to quash the talkative ones. I felt really bad for the students I had to get rid of or shut up, especially since education is supposed to be for everyone and they are the most underserved, but I had to look at the greater good as well as at my own ability. They'll have to suck it up and quietly sit in a corner for now. Hopefully with the class as a whole under better control and more seriously attempting the math, they won't try to derail me as much. Eventually, the quieter kids who don't want to derail me might get a little less quiet. Here's hoping anyway.

By the way, wasn't my honeymoon period supposed to be a little longer?