improvement / celebration

Things were better this week. My students are starting to mellow out, and the big problems are gone, leaving me with the dreaded and continual talking while I am talking problem. I met with my PD and came up with a kickass action plan, and a couple of other teachers in my SLC came over to my room with a plan all drawn up to nip it in the bud: since next week is only 3 days, they're each taking two of my biggest troublemakers, first thing in the morning, no questions asked. I'll give them a book and an agenda for the day and then they'll go sit in these well-behaved classrooms, isolated from their friends, facing the wall, and they will do their work silently. If this happens, they will be allowed to come back to my classroom after Thanksgiving. If it does not, they will continue to work in Solitary.

It sounds cruel but it will absolutely work.

This leaves me free to deal with my other, more serious problems: my English class lacks any kind of momentum or urgency, and my Advanced ESL class is still failing their reading comprehension. I'm feeling a tremendous sense of relief - these are the problems I was hired to deal with, not a bunch of post-middle schoolers who refuse to spit out their gum and put the goddamn nano away.

As I type I'm getting ready to go out on Program bid-ness. The LA 100 is a Program tradition, maybe even the Program tradition in my region. After 100 days in the classroom, we all get together and go out for a night of drinking, dancing, and cavorting at some super-trendy nightclub. I'm actually not that into it, but some of my favorite Program people, including my PD, my best Institute friend, and my best credentialing class friends will be there, and there's no cover, and I made a deal with my friend Hess that if we go, and it sucks, we leave immediately after the free champagne and seek out a dive bar. I'd kinda rather just do that to begin with, but I guess that's why I wasn't asked to organize the 100.