My First Write-Up

Yesterday I wrote up my first ever disciplinary referral (referral for a school-wide detention, which goes on their record).  It was for Jay, surprise surprise.  Although he wasn’t acting much different than any other day, I realized I had to show him that I actually would write him up.  He was completely ignoring every direction I gave whether I asked him or told him to do something.  Everything had to be an argument or have an explanation.  The worst part was that James—who is absent four out of five days of every week and is extremely behind—was actually there yesterday and was so distracted by Jay that he got nothing done.  Jay also made fun of Carolyn’s belly, which is starting to show (she’s now about 4 months pregnant), which was the final straw.  I used my best teacher stare and teacher voice, told him I was no longer going to tolerate his behavior, and walked over to my desk and wrote his name down on a random piece of paper.  So, in those last 5 minutes, he was an angel, but I wrote him up anyway.  When he found out he had a detention (and who gave it to him), he walked into my French club meeting screaming, and I calmly told him we’d talk about it tomorrow. 

I was dreading seeing him today, but he was actually better today.  Not perfect, but an improvement!  The Global Studies (Mr. M) teacher and I have teamed up to create a daily behavior tracker that he has to have every one of his teachers sign every day, and he has to bring it to us at the end of every day.  It’s pretty hysterical because it’s tailored specifically to him.  The categories include, “stays in his seat,”  “does not talk to himself or others while the teacher is teaching,”  “does not argue or give excuses when given a reminder or consequence,”  “takes notes and does work” etc.  We’re going to introduce it to him tomorrow, and he’s going to hate it, but Mr. M and I are already getting a kick out of it. 

French club, by the way, was magnifique! One of the 9^th graders, whose chosen French name is André, was apparently a fantastic French student in middle school and was so sad to find out our high school doesn’t offer French.  I swear, the kid is actually just as good, if not better, at speaking French than I am.  We had a lot of fun, and it was so interactive and high energy that I’m starting to think I’ll go back to school to get my French certification after my Special Ed. master’s is finished!