8:3

Today was quite the day. It was a battle all day long to get students to listen and follow directions. No matter how many times you gave directions, you almost always had to give the direction another time. Finally by the time that math came around, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. It was so bad that I wasn’t even the only one that had said something. Miss M was in the hall with a student and I was teaching math, and working with them on a new lesson. The students could not listen at all, and it was so hard to keep the students listening to me. I was frustrated, students who were listening were frustrated, and those who weren’t kept talking. I finally just said, ok since most of you know what is going on and how to do it, then you can do it on your own. I grabbed the math book, and sat at the desk. Students just looked at me, and had a look of awe on their face. They couldn’t believe that I had done that. They then realized that I was serious, and started working on their assignment. I had gotten out before I quit that we needed to do #’s 1-4 on page 70, but they didn’t know what to do after that. We were supposed to do more problems then that, but we couldn’t even get through those 4. I sat down, and didn’t help anyone. They needed to work on their own, and figure it out. Most of them did it, but there were a few that were so mad and frustrated that they didn’t know what to do they chose not to do it. The consequence for them not even trying is that they have to come in during recess tomorrow to hear the directions, and do it correctly. Other students have the option that if they want to come in and get proper directions so they know how to do it, then they are more than welcome. I then after school talked to Miss M about how frustrated I was, and if it was ok that I did that, she said that it was, and that if she would have thought of it, she would have done the same thing. I told her I was done yelling over them, and didn’t really know what else to do. So I did the first thing that came to my mind, and hopefully it works. We then had talked about if I didn’t have a recess period what I could do to get those students to do their work that they didn’t do today.

Today during reading group, I also had a student who didn’t do his homework last night because he “didn’t feel like it”. I told him what his consequences were, and that he still had to stay in at recess time to get his story written. He wasn’t very happy about it, but I feel as though he can’t just not do it because he doesn’t feel like it. Everyone else chose to do it, and finished their work without needing to have a consequence.

Today was a bit of a difficult day, but I made it through ok. Hopefully tomorrow and Friday are a lot better.