Mondays

Yuck. I've been feeling my passion dwindle these past couple of weeks. Pretty strange since I haven't worked a full week since well before Christmas break. And it's all because of one class of do-nothings and another class of clowns. I love the clowns, don't get me wrong. They could rock my class if they could just shut their mouths for five seconds. I'm just not enough of a stickler to send out the entire class when they are all talking. Instead...I wait until it quiets down and just one person speaks out. Then I send that person out, but I don't feel good about it because it's not fair. Everyone else was talking too, they just happened to be the one who spoke last. I do much better with black or white rules. If I see a phone or an iPod, I take it. End of story. I don't care about excuses or sob stories. That's the way it goes. I feel justified in this because the office then punishes...it's a school rule...and it's not like a bathroom pass where emergencies happen.

What to do about the chatting?? I feel like I'm always facing a losing battle because, by now, the behaviors are already stuck in the kids. If I crack down now, they'll be so confused! I wanted to take a whole week and work on nothing but behavior, but with Christmas and the new semester, I haven't had a chance to do it. When will classroom managment get easier??