Arrrgh

So here's what happened Friday. I left school on Thursday very fed up with my last class. We had such a wonderfully terrific day on Wednesday (refer to my last entry), so you can imagine how flustered I was when things were back to normal on Thursday--rudeness and loud mouths and all. As soon as the last student walked out, I was in tears. I prayed that God would help me find the strength to come up with some surefire punishment. The last time they were this bad, I just had questions on the board for them to reflect on and we talked about how they were supposed to act. Too touchy-feely for this bunch, I think, looking back. So, after thinking about it, I stormed into the copy room and ran off a packet of worksheets on Character Counts--specifically on Respect and Accountability. I wrote about 10 directions the board before they came in to class on Friday, describing every last detail of their assignments and my expectations of them for the day. There was plenty to do, because not only did they have the Character Counts assignment, but also the assignment I had already planned. I had written on the top of the board "You talk: ASD". That got their attention. They sat in their desks and wrote. And wrote. And wrote. For two periods. Without so much as a peep. It was glorious. I got stuff done to prepare for this week. I organized my desk (as it often resembles a tornado disaster) and generally felt good about the whole Silent Block. At the end, I told them that I knew they were capable of being quiet and getting work done. I was pleased.

Today, it was like Friday never happened. In they walked with their mouths open and crap flowing out. With no restraint. I wanted to ram my head into the brick wall. Did Friday mean nothing to them? Perhaps I need to be the Classroom Nazi all the time. They seemed to respond better to that. How sad is that? I don't know what I'm going to do. Some don't care about ASD or being kicked out of class. My job shouldn't be this exhausting everyday...