Oh Baby Baby

Today one of my students threw a temper tantrum - complete with pouty face and sitting in the corner. There were also several f words thrown in there. There was stomping out of the room and returning to sulk in chair. There were dirty looks and sighs. I could not believe that I was witnessing this. Oh and  by the way - this was a 10th grader. Yeah. What had I done to warrant such behavior? I would not give him a pass to get his skateboard so that he could skateboard around school for the last 20 minutes of school. How horrible of me huh. This incident has stuck in the back of my mind all night. I had heard horror stories of this student since last year. We have a new (and amazing) principal this year who actually follows through with the students and this student is having a tough time with that. Last year he was allowed time to 'cool off' when he didn't want to stay in a class. Translation: previous principal allowed him to wander in and out of classes whenever he wanted to. When I refused to let him do this today, I was met with a 5 year old in a grocery store that cannot get the toy he wants. After the first two wonderful weeks of school, known as the honeymoon period, the challenges of educating teenagers has reared its crazy head

We've only just begun

It is 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon and I am in my pajamas. I slept in and then spent the day alternating in between cleaning and laundry and reading, catching up on emails and facebook, and watching senseless tv. Can you guess what today is? If you guessed the very first weekend of the school year . . .ding ding you are correct. Today marked the first day that I have not done anything school related in over 2 1/2 weeks including one week of professional development and the always eventful first week of school. We have had some major changes at my school and this is the first year that I went back with as much enthusiasm as I did the first year that I taught. After a wonderful summer, I am starting this new year with feelings of great renewal and excitement. I am looking forward to the changes that are happening and to a year with no mistakes and so much learning ahead. This is going to be an amazing year. I've always intended to keep track of things that go on in school and with my students (and the crazy things that they say) and have decided that I'm actually going to do it - so here we go!