Silence

The last time I updated was that really really horrible day last week, that left me crying by myself in my classroom during my prep period.

The next day, I was a drill sergeant.  I was waiting outside my door before the bell rang for 7th period to start.  I refused to let my students in until they were ready to enter silently, and when they did they were greeted with the desks in neat rows, instead of the usual, friendly semi-circle arrangement.  I told them right away that I was in no mood to hear a single one of their voices, and that no one was allowed to talk today.  They were to spend the period doing their work silently, and if they had a question they had to raise their hand and I would help them.  A few of them tried to object or to explain their actions, but I cut them off before they could even get a whole word out.

They worked silently for the rest of the period, and when there were only two minutes left, I stopped scowling and said, "So what is everyone doing for their 3-day weekend?"  They looked at me in shock, not sure if they should answer, and when the bell rang JT shouted out "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." and they all apologized at the same time!

I talked to my principal about it, because I was being pretty hard on myself that I had let a class of only 8 students get so out of control.  But she told me that I everything I did the next day was the right thing to do (down to the subtle message I sent by putting the desks in rows), and the fact that they responded in such a way (and apologized) shows that I actually do have a good control over them, and that the do respect me.  Otherwise, they would have come in and continued to act the same way without remorse.

By the way, Carolyn had her baby this morning! A girl!