A Revelation!!

I went to the principal this morning before school started, and talked to her about the trouble I've been having with my 7/8 Period block. I felt like there was a handful of boys that were affecting the dynamics of the class, and it was making me feel really tense and unhappy. I have been dreading that group of kids pretty much every day since the first week of school. I mentioned one of the names of the kids that's been giving me troubles and the principal said to call mom. Apparently mom is real supportive and if that didn't work, I could send him to a teacher he had last year. It's all about making an example of one of the students, so the others will be afraid. Very afraid. So, during my planning time today, I gave the mom a call. She was there, and guess what? Her son was out sick today, so he was there when I called. She said she would talk to him and she appreciated me calling. I'm always intimidated by calling parents, because it's a crapshoot--you never what kind of parent you'll get on the other end of the phone. Luckily the odds were on my side and she was happy to hear from me.

And with that particular student out today, something amazing happened: the class was wonderful!! I was so pleased! All this time I thought that 5 or 6 of them were the cause of the problem, when all along it was just this one student who was inspiring the others to be doofuses. It was so peaceful today. The kids even commented that it was quieter with him gone. I didn't say much about that, but I did say, "well, whatever the reason is, I appreciate it." I was even so pleased that I lessened their homework. They worked dilligently on this vocabulary assignment that pretty much took the entire block, that at the end I shortened it and told them it paid to be well behaved. I walked out of there with a smile on my face. It was one of those "Aha!!" moments. The disruption in class centered around one student. That's not hard to deal with.

Let's hope when he returns tomorrow, he gets peer pressured from the others to be good. Or at least the talk with his mom does what it's meant to do.