Today was probably the first day in a while that I’ve had a not-so-good day at work. The kids were pushing my buttons and were more annoying than usual. It started snowing/hailing outside during 7th period and the students went crazy and started yelling. Trying to nip it in the bud I told them to stop, and they would not listen. Maybe I made the wrong decision at the time, but I immediately wanted to regain control of the class and not let chaos ensue. Subsequently, I passed out textbooks to all the students and had them copy facts out of the book. A simple solution whenever they are not following any directions. They soon complied, but I was annoyed that it had to get to that point.
And so I have to take a step back and breathe a little. I guess it was an “out of the norm” experience for them, and maybe I could have responded differently, but I was unsure what to do at the time. What made it even worse was that some of the neighboring teachers let the students outside to see the snow, and those kids were yelling at the top of their lungs as well.
Sometimes it helps to look at past pictures of great students to continue to inspire me.
These are pictures of “the best” students from each period during my first year of teaching at Cram Middle School. I invited them to a pizza party for simply being “the best”, and it was great. It probably wouldn’t fly to do something like this now though, since it’s consisdered favortism. These students are the reason I teach and I know they’re all successful in college as we speak.
Here’s hoping the chaos dies down, and the weather gets back to normal, so these kids can be less annoying for the rest of the school year.
