What a day!! I have a class that tore me to pieces today. My crime? Taking away a cell phone. Then I took away some kids Tech Deck that he was playing with. Then I said that if the students didn't want to participate in class today, they were more than welcome to go elsewhere. My class just wasn't having it today. I kept trying. But I have one student (okay, actually I have 3 or 4 in that class) who poisons the rest of the class.
We started our story today and when I asked for suggestions for names, someone yelled out Madame Hussein. I thought that was really clever, so I jumped on it. Little did I know that they were making reference to me (Madame) and how horrible I am. It became clearer as we described the character further. She was evil. Very very very stupid. Every time this student would make his suggestion, he would snicker. It finally dawned on me what was going on, but I tried to ignore it...thinking that I would rather look stupid as long as we were making progress in the story.
Long story short, I finally stopped and told the students that they are not being forced to be in my class. If it is so horrible and I'm so unfair, they can drop it. There is no FL requirement in our district. I tried to engage them in dialogue about what I do that is unfair...they wouldn't bite. I know that it's my fault because I shouldn't let it get to the point that it got to today. I should have sent the poisoners out of class much earlier...but I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, even if it makes me look like an idiot. But for some reason, that translates to me "having it out" for them. Like I come to school some days and say "Hmmm, how can I make Bobby's day horrible today?" Because my classes are so fun when everyone hates being there...(dripping sarcasm here). It honestly makes me want to cry and give up.
Don't give up! You can do it. It is really a shame what a bad apple [or 3] can do in a class. I really feel for you. One thing that I have learned is that students may want to participate well, but they will only do what is perceived as socially acceptable. So, if a student by now is not playing the tprs game, I remove the bad seed immediately and either drop them or put them on their own program. They have no right to be that disrespectful to you or the class and there have to be consequences for that.
ReplyDeleteI know it's hard, but you can recover from it and move on. I hope this week is better!
Thomas Young