I'm Disappointed

Just as my title states, I'm disappointed. I am exhausted and disappointed, even though I have given myself two days to cool down and consider the situation from afar. What else could I have done, I am am left wondering.

On Friday, because Mrs. ----- was in a meeting all day, I was left in charge of our classes completely. This was something that I was not too worried about. When it is my time to teach, I am usually left alone with them anyway. This is not new ground for me. She left me with what she wanted us to do, as it was not my lesson day, and I was left to teach them, which, again, was not a huge deal.

The real trouble came from my 3B class.

3B is a bit of a problem class anyway. They are rowdy -- almost all of them are football boys, and seventh graders besides -- and, as they have just come in from lunch, they are full of energy too. Sometimes they're good, but they're often trouble for Mrs. -----.

We were supposed to be annotating a chapter from Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, which is not that difficult. We have annotated before, so they are used to it. The problem is that they simply could not keep their little mouths shut for more than three minutes at a time. They know that they're supposed to raise their hands to comment or ask a question, and yet they continued to speak out of turn. One of them kept shushing other students even after I told him that that was definitely not necessary.

I had to stop class several times, we only made it partially through the part that we were annotating as a class, and they thoroughly showed their butts in front of the substitute that was in the class with me. I let them know that I was very disappointed with them for how they acted, and they acted chastised. I have to admit that I felt rather pleased at the look of horror on their faces when I told them that I would be leaving Mrs. ----- a note about their behavior. I hope they stewed in that worry all weekend, as they are not going to be happy in class on Monday.

I will have to talk about their behavior with Mrs. ----- tomorrow. I wanted to assign what they were doing to be done on Monday, but I didn't want to circumvent her authority in doing so, even though I am fairly certain she wouldn't have minded.....