Further Insight...

I love teaching...so very much...but some classes are more behaved than others. I think back to what my mentor teacher said during student teaching..."Find one thing to love in every student."

That can be so hard!

My last hour class this year is for language remediation. If you take the one or two kids from every class who are trouble makers, then throw them all into one class at the end of the day, what would you anticipate to be the outcome?

Now multiply that by 1,000.

I've been weary...I've been frustrated...I've even been angry.

Last Friday was quite possibly the worst day, classroom management wise, of my entire teaching experience. It was ugly.

This week, the class structure has been completely changed, and the students have been slightly beaten into submission.

But here's where my heart is in turmoil.

The students were asked to anonymously write three reasons they were misbehaving in the class, or three things about the class that frustrated them.

So many students wrote, "It's not the class that gets me going...it's what I'm thinking about. I'm either thinking about the fight I left to come to school this morning, or the fight that will happen when I get home."

These students have been the hardest to love, and yet they're the ones who need love the most.

Oh, Lord, how often do I fail at expressing the greatness of your face?

My students have been processing and thinking, but so have I. And I have much to change.

On a completely unrelated note, Josh and I have a puppy named Stella...who is a total glutton.

As a 7-week-old puppy, she would gorge her own food, then gorge Ivan's. Ivan has since learned to snarf just as fast as Stella. Stella even ate dogfood filled with ants...and consequently found herself the object of an ant attack. Her beard was loaded with the cranky black insects, and she earned herself a bath. She couldn't even walk correctly because her stomach was bulging and tight.

We knew Stella just couldn't help herself, but she's taken herself to an all-time low.

Stella ate through a zip-loc bag of chocolate cookies. Yes. She did.

And it's time for an intervention.

Suggestions?