Well, I issued books.

Yep. It happened today.  I hate issuing books.  They are heavy and burdensome.  The kids lose them.  But, I had no choice.  I took my second class into the lab yesterday.  Everything was fine, except that one child was talking non-stop to his neighbor.  I did the usual series of things to get him quiet.  Finally, I asked him to change to another table so I could finish giving instructions to the class.  He refused.  I explained that he needed to move or he would get written up.  He still refused.  I went back into my classroom to get a write up sheet.  When I came back, two girls on either side of the lab were threatening each other because someone called someone ignorant.  I took the entire class back into the classroom and issued books.  While in the process of that, another student (the one who missed the pep rally Friday) did the same thing.  Kept talking and refused to move.  I wrote him up and sent him on to the office.  The first student I decided to call his mom.  Finally, the bell rings.  I go to car duty.  Afterwards, I get his mom's number and go to the office to call.  Disconnected.  I go back to his file and write down all numbers available for him.  I call his dad's number.  Disconnected.  I finally get hold of an aunt, who gives me the number I can reach them at.  Disconnected.   Today, I'll get in touch with his special ed teacher.  Yea, another one who is "special ed" because he can't control his behavior.

What is it with girls?

I was having a wonderful day today.  My first class is so great.  They sit quietly, ask questions, participate and act like they are so interested in anatomy.  The next class, my biology class, can't stop talking, texting, walking around, and asking to go to the bathroom.  And, of course, that's the class my principal decides to walk in on and check out.  The class after that acted the same way.  I finally threatened to work them bell to bell if they didn't get seated, quiet and under control.  I had one of my IEP kids (the same one I had the bathroom issue with) talking constantly with her neighbor while I was trying to talk.  I kept sending general hints (Okay, everyone stop talking and listen to this, Let's get quiet).  Finally, I just stopped talking and looked her way.  One of my good students turned around to her and said, "Will you just shut up?"  This upset my IEP kid and she turned into a drama queen.  "I don't have to take that!  You can't talk to me like that! I need to go to the counselor cause she done upset me!"  I told her she didn't need to go to the counselor, she needed to get quiet and pay attention.  She kept on with "I'll kick her butt, etc."  I told her she didn't need to be mad at the student to told her to get quiet.  That she should be upset with herself for disrupting the class so much that someone else had to say something.  She kept on and I finally said if she really had no control over her behavior that she had to go somewhere because someone asked her to get quiet...She interrupted me to say she could control her behavior.  (Which was just what I needed), So I told her to get it under control then.  Things calmed down and luckily the bell rang.  Whew!  Don't you just love the drama?!

Well, for a Monday it wasn't so bad

I've figured out which class is my challenge.  The funny thing is that the challenging class isn't my lowest level class.  Usually, the worst behavior students are in the lowest classes.  And most of my IEPs are in that class, but my hard to control class is my regular class.  It is also my largest class.  Big surprise.    And it's not that they are evil or horrible, they are just unfocused.  They are up and down and talking all the time.  I find myself almost shouting to be heard over their talking.  I had a lab for them to do today, but had decided against it, since the lab is cluttered with PE equipment and I can't guarantee they will behave and not tear up stuff.  However, sucker that I am, I let them go in and look at newspaper under the microscope.  Shockingly, they were very well behaved.  One student told me going into the lab that he had taken this class last year and the old teacher had never let them come into the lab.  Made me feel good that I took them.  The only real problem that I had was with a girl who was mad that I wouldn't let her go to the bathroom.  Now, mind you, I had told the kids everyday last week that they could go before or after class, but that I did not want to have to stop teaching to go write up a pass to the bathroom.  She was aware of this.  I had let her go on Friday and had reminded her personally to go before class.  I even remind them when they walk in the door between bells to go to the bathroom if they need to.  So, she walks into the lab and stands in the middle of the room.  I tell her to find a workstation and get busy.  She stands there.  I again tell her she needs to hurry or she won't have time to finish the worksheet.  She says she can't walk to the workstation because she has to pee so bad she will wet herself if she walks over there.  Then, she says it is in her IEP that she can go to the bathroom whenever she wants because she has a small bladder.  I tell her that if that is true, I'll let her go to the bathroom today, but if she's lying to me, she won't leave my room again.  She goes to the bathroom, comes back and stands in the middle of the room.  I walk over to her and tell her that she needs to talk to me after class about a schedule change.  She asks why.  I tell her that she has a zero for today for not doing her work and if she is planning on doing this everyday, she needs to be in someone's class that will give her bookwork or some other way to do the class because I do not want her to fail this class.  She storms out saying she will talk to the counselor.  I later checked her IEP.  She has no learning disability, she has a behavior issue.  She doesn't know how to behave.  Apparently, she scored normally in all subjects, but if she doesn't like someone, she will bully them, make fun of them, and sometimes blow up.  To me, giving someone and IEP for being a bully is a bit ridiculous, but I'm not in charge.  If I were in charge, I would put kids like her in a boot camp type arrangement to teach them self discipline and teamwork.  I really hate that I'm not in charge.  However, if that's the worst thing to deal with all day, then I count today as a great day.  Of course, I'll probably have her grandmother or whoever keeps her screaming at me tomorrow.  Such is life.

Survived the first week. 18 to go.

All in all, the kids aren't that bad.  Although I'm a little depressed at their test scores.  I gave them a 63 question test on lab safety, scientific method and measurement (all review, mind you!), and only had 3 A's.  And that's with each question only counting one point!  They could miss 10 questions and still get an A.  Had more D's than A's.  I had one student who got a zero.  After posting the rules for taking a test (stay seated, no talking and no cheating) he gets up and comes to my desk.  I tell him he must sit down and raise his hand and I will come to him.  He says he can't do that.  I tell him he must or he will get a zero.  He says he doesn't care, so I open the grade book and give him a zero.  Then he says "Now, that just ain't right."  I take him outside into the hallway and explain about the rules.  He says he wasn't bothering anyone.  I tell him that if everyone who has finished their test started walking around it would bother the other kids and I can't let him walk around and not the others, it wouldn't be fair.  Then he wants to go to the office.  I told him he can go back in and sit down until everyone finishes or I can write him up and he can go to the office.  He goes back in and sits down.  Found out, he just got out of trouble and has only been allowed back this week.  They told me not to worry, he'll only last about another week and he will be sent off again.  That bothers me, because he wasn't loud or angry about anything.  Part of me wants to talk to him and try to motivate him to continue in school and graduate, but part of me feels everyone has already tried to help him and he's probably sick of everyone bugging him about school.  I guess either way I'll feel terrible.  I should keep my big mouth shut and let him make his own mistakes....but I'll probably talk to him.  I'm an idiot.

Paperwork! Paperwork!

Well, I've gotten my syllabus printed out, along with my classroom procedures.  Still no lesson plans, but working on that today.  It should be an interesting first day.  The new school building is being built on the old school's parking lot, which means, no parking for anyone.  I'll have to arrive at school at 6am to get parking. Great.  Then, I have five different forms I have to pass out to my first block kids.  Free and reduced lunch form, Code of conduct, stuff like that.  I have to go over some of the school rules from the Code of conduct with them.  Then, I have to give them my syllabus and go over that, followed by my classroom procedures and go over that.  Then I'm handing them the laboratory safety contract.  We will go over that entire sheet (front and back) and discuss it.  I'm betting that will take up the entire 93 minutes of first block.  Not to mention calling roll and ensuring everyone is in the correct class.  Second and fourth block will be a bit trickier.  However, since they are both biology classes, I will go over syllabus, rules, lab safety and then follow with an experiment I like to do the first day called "Red Drop".  Second block will also be given the lunch schedule (which I'm not even sure about yet) and fourth block will go over bus schedule.  During my 93 minute planning, I'll work on lessons for the rest of the week.  I love the teachers and staff at this school.  I'm hoping the kids will be good also.  Would be really nice to settle here.  I think working a block schedule will be better for me, because usually, by Christmas, I'm fed up with a class.  This way, after Christmas, I'll get a new class and start over.  Unless, of course, the worst ones fail and I'm stuck with them another semester.  (Which is probably what will happen).  Hmm....

The week in review

All in all, not a bad week.  Other than the leaking roofs and the fact that I lost my license, social security card and a voided check after attending a human resource meeting.  It was my own fault tho.  I should have put them away when I left, but I just held onto them with the rest of the paper work I was given.  So, I'm hoping now that it is either in the car of the teacher I rode with or in my classroom.  I've looked in the paperwork, my purse and my car.  On a positive note, I got my desk fixed, so it won't fall on me again.  I also found a white board that I had drilled over the chalk board.  I have textbooks now, but still no teacher edition of the anatomy book.  Looks like I'll have to wing it on that class.  Today, I'm planning on aligning all the curriculum standards into an 18 week lesson plan for both classes.  Tomorrow I will start plundering in the lab to see what I need to order so my kids can do some cool experiments.  I'll try to post photos of my room soon.

Started the new job

Went in to work today to get my room ready.  It was very stormy today.  Noticed that there was a puddle of water on my floor.  A big ceiling leak above it.  Went to my lab to get some paper towels and a bucket and had a HUGE water leak in there.  Ended up with three leaks in my classroom and one in the lab.  Oh, and since we are moving into a new building next year, they aren't fixing anything.  What a great start to the new year.