Today was one of those days. Nothing in particular happened, but yesterday was just about the best day of the year with them, and, then, today, which featured kids giving only about 10 minutes of total engagement and then slow devolution into almost no engagement by the time the bell rang at the end. And I had a great lesson for them. On days like these, I just think to myself, "When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.When the..." I repeat this old Chinese Proverb to myself like a mantra. Because, today, I didn't appear.
So, yes, it wasn't a great day. I left after Coach Class to work my frustrations out at the gym, and stopped at 7-11 for some coffee. A middle school aged kid was in front of me in line, so I set my coffee and my car keys down on the counter while I fished for my $1.33 in my pocket for the coffee refill. The kid ordered some pizza, right in front of where my coffee and keys were, so he sort of shoved himself in the space between me and my keys, not even taking notice of his total violation of my space. Then, he got his pizza, and left, and I left right behind him. Then, right on 33rd street, he took his piece of pizza out of the square cardboard pizza box and tossed the box on the street, and ran across to the Waverly Library. He didn't appear to have a care in the world. Absolutely no shame in throwing a big piece of trash on the street in the middle of rush hour.
It was the punctuation mark on a bad day, one full of disappointment. And it's only Tuesday.
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I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:
http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/
http://bmoreschools.org/
http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/
http://nyates314.wordpress.com/
***
I'm also supporting the other Baltimore Education bloggers who are also blogging every day this month. Check out their blogs!:
http://survivingthesystem.blogspot.com/
http://bmoreschools.org/
http://www.thesmallesttwine.blogspot.com/
http://nyates314.wordpress.com/
2 comments:
ok, i'm glad that you are experiencing the same thing with your 9th graders.... i was beginning to think that i was losing it because my kids are the exact same way. NO attention spans at all. sigh.
It's not just your group of ninth graders. That class of children were the roughest group I've ever taught and I had them 2 years ago in 7th grade. I don't even think any of mine went to your school. Crazy huh?
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