Too Many Places to Be

Having a difficult class can be demanding.  I love the challenge of having students that keep me on my toes.  My ultimate goal is that I want them to hopefully find their path while they are in my class.  I treat my students like they are young adults, hoping that they will understand the expectations that go with that.  I value manners, honesty, and living up to expectations in my class.  I am not afraid to tell them how it is.  I have compassion for my students, but I definitely don’t sugar coat things.

This years class tends to put all of those to the test.  I have a small class which is helpful, but I think they have had so many years of high flier behaviors that they all just got used to it.  This class, more than any other class I have ever had, has a lot of baggage they bring from their home life.  This is what the biggest challenge being their teacher is.  I am not just teaching them academics, but I am also really having to focus on their social needs as well.  And there are A LOT of them!

There are some days I come to school, and I get pulled in ten different directions due to behaviors of my students.  The problem is most of these behaviors occur outside my classroom.  They occur in specials, lunch, or recess typically.  There are not many times that I don’t walk to pick them up where the teacher I pick them up from didn’t have a problem with one of them.  It gets to be very exhausting.

Today was that day.  It started off really well.  My students came in super quiet, and were on-task pretty much all morning.  Then we went to PE.  My first stop with a shut down student.  Right when I get back from that, we head back upstairs, and one of my students who got disciplined for talking threw a huge fit, as well as threw this materials all over the floor.  Then, I had to go check on my two students who were in an “alternate location” for the last two days while my other kids were at recess.  I got two seconds to eat, then went to lunch, where another two of my students got into an altercation and were crying.  Another fire to put out.  The afternoon was filled with another student having constant melt downs over anything and everything.

There are just some days where I feel like I need a clone.  I need that other person to hang with the rest of my class while I put out fires.  I think that is why this class as a whole has so many problems.  They are so used to their teacher dealing with all of the big problems, that they just sit and chat and stop caring.  It is unfortunate that so few can affect so many.  The good news is that we have made a lot of progress this year.  A lot.  It doesn’t seem like it, but earlier in the year I was dealing with four to five major problems on a daily basis.  One day at a time.  One kid at a time.