Offset by a Giggle

Week 5 of school year number 2 is over and I haven’t written anything about it!  It’s not because nothing has happened but because too much has happened.  This has been a very busy year so far.  It’s good, though, much better than year 1.

Here’s what made today so crazy:

Apparently there was a fight before school started, so my kids came to class all excited about it.  I have a class that is 2/3 freshman boys, just so you know.  Then, during my first block I had a kid who was having a rough time making good choices.  First, he came to class without anything – no ID, no book, no paper, nothing to write with, no agenda.  So I sent him to get an ID.  He comes back and tells me they won’t give him one (which is a lie).  Then he asks me if he can go to the nurse because he has this bug bite on his hand.  I didn’t let him go because I could tell he was just wanting out, but he just kept asking me.  A few minutes later I tell him to go get his book out of his locker, and he blows up saying that’s what he had been asking me.  Then he says, “I’m sick of this, I’m going to Recovery.”  I told him he couldn’t go without me giving him permission but he leaves anyway.  In the meantime one of the secretaries comes to tell me my co-teacher’s substitute did not show up and I see this kid in the hallway still.  So I have her take him to his adminstrator.  THEN, he comes back up right as it’s passing time and gets in a fight with another kid in my class.  Remember, this all happened 1st block – before 8:20 in the morning.

4th and 5th block I co-teach an Algebra 1 class with a SPED teacher, and 1/3 of our students have an IEP.  My co-teacher is in Ohio because her daughter is having a bay, and remember the secretary said my sub didn’t show up.  So, I had to teach a room full of 30 kids 2 blocks in a row, 1/3 of which is SPED.  It wouldn’t have been so bad except the SPED kids are used to getting one-on-one help, of which I couldn’t give them when I was in there by myself.

3rd and 6th block my students took a test, and it was too long.  So they have to finish it up on Monday, which I hate doing because they’ve already seen the test and therefore know what specific questions are on it.

During lunch I left the room, the kids left the room, I locked the door, and when I came back I unlocked the door.  So, the only time the room was left unsupervised it was locked.  When the students came back from lunch not one, but 2 of them said something was stolen from them.  How does that even happen?!

Good times…