Day Fifty: Payback

Yesterday was awesome. Today started out interesting when my principal popped in to see how I was doing. He was very encouraging. He heard good things about my evaluation yesterday and was impressed with the way I was gaining my students' trust. He also told me he had really wanted to hire a new teacher, not someone who had been doing things the same way for 20 years and unwilling to adapt. So I guess my feeling like I'm always making things up is a good thing?

But let's really get down to what today was about--Today I ate humble pie.

So glad my evaluation was yesterday, and not today. Much of my day was almost like a nightmare. It took forever to get kids to read today. They would be disrespectful and not want to work, then ask if we could go outside or to the game room. Fourth period was especially hard. I kept thinking, "Why did I give you a pizza party yesterday?" I did learn something pretty interesting though. One of my tougher students was reading the part of Angel. To get attention, he would pause before he was supposed to read, clear his throat, then finally read the line. EVERY LINE. At first I tried to tell the other students just to ignore it so he'd stop. No dice. So when he was taking too long, without saying a word, I started reading his part before he could. Didn't take more than a few lines for him to realize what was going on. Instead of saying he didn't want to read anyway, he started reading his lines without creating a scene. Small victory.

Then 6th period rolled around. Most of the class wanted to be in the skit for the assembly, and we had so much fun putting it together. I was so impressed with their creativity, and the use of props. Even the same empty box became a hiding place, a house, and a car. They seem really excited about performing tomorrow. It was just what I needed at the end of a tough day of teaching. I loved seeing them take ownership.