Today the 7th and 8th grades were pretty rowdy and loud all day. 8th grade was unruly enough to merit being held in a class for 10 extra minutes before they would settle down enough to be dismissed. That led me to have to manage my 7th graders in a line in the hallway for those 10 minutes - that was a less than ideal situation. Then, at the end of the following period, 8th grade had to come down to the 90 minute block period they have with me at the very end of the day. Once again, it was 5 minutes before they could be dismissed. I was literally shaking with apprehension - they are usually pretty loud and unfocused in my class anyway. They came in, got their bellwork from me at the door, and the noise commenced. I could barely get kids' attention who walked by me without getting a paper. Then, I moved to the front of the room and said we would be quiet and focused or go out and line up again in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - silence. Working. I was almost as surprised as I was impressed. Thankfully my principal was there, so she thinks that I have them under control...luckily she didn't stick around. "Focus time" was interspersed between lengthy periods of unwanted discussion, laughing, and yelling.
Oh well, I felt good anyway.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment