Not My Fault

This is the first week I've run 7 miles in a long time. That was three 2-milers and a 1-mile faster run. My legs are tired, but I feel proud. I know it's less than some of my original plans, but it's done, which makes it better than any plan anyway.

Today was the second day of lockdown. My classes went better overall. I really noticed that clearer expectations makes a HUGE difference, much more so than consequences. I actually got a bunch of teaching done today.

Throughout this blog, I've tried very hard to take responsibility for myself and my teaching. As in computer science, everything works out the way you instruct it to, which is not necessarily what you WANT it to do. A lot of my self-reflecting has led to big improvements over the last six months(!). But, I'm not going to take the blame for this one. Here's what went on today.

My homeroom class was HORRENDOUS. They're really a challenging bunch, and everyone agrees with me. In fact, today, my principal walked into homeroom and announced that my class would be in lockdown in a different room for the day, because my room is "toxic". Maybe a new environment would lead to better behavior.

In short, it didn't. They were rowdy, disobedient, and ended up trashing another teacher's classroom (I'm used to cleaning up every afternoon). Four kids got suspended. On the way out of the building today, my principal said that my kids aren't going to be in that classroom again and that something else needed to be tried, because my class is so awful.

Now, keep in mind, I was only with them for one period today. The rest of the day, they had other teachers. Three of the kids were suspended on other teachers' watches. The trashing of the room happened over the course of seven classes. It's hard enough to manage a classroom when I'm there, and I've been working a lot on improving that. I can't manage a classroom when I'm not there! I've been getting a lot of flak lately because my homeroom class is such a challenge. It's the class that was assigned to me. Just because it's known as my class doesn't mean that their behavior in other classes is a reflection of me.

This one is not my fault.

P.S. I still love the kids, but in a way that makes me really excited that I only have one day until vacation.