Just Another Day at the Office

1. Watched my principal get into a shouting match with a cheeky student in the hallway between classes. Still think he is a nice, decent person, but my respect for him as an administrator is fading.
2. Sang “Happy Birthday” to one my students at the end of the last block. This arose from their curiosity after an afternoon announcement yesterday as to whether I could sing or not. (In fact, I did sing in select choir in both high school and college.) Students were impressed!
3. One of my favorite students informed me that she will not, after all, be moving to Ohio at the end of this week, as she had informed me yesterday. She can be a handful as far as her attitude at times, in that loud, impudent way we have all come to know and expect, but she is also one my brightest. I really love her, and I would be sad to see her go. Today she did a fabulous job “teaching” another student how to do polynomial division at the whiteboard. She is the best student I have, when it comes to playing the teacher role.
4. Transition has descended into en masse disrespect, verging on outright chaos. Today they were whistling and so on and so forth while I was trying to give them a make-up test for the one that every single student in the class failed on Monday. So much for the success story I wrote about last Saturday.
5. Made lots of jokes during my last block class. One of my favorites: Previously mentioned favorite student stopped short when she realized she was about to reveal something about herself she would rather not. “You can tell me later,” I joked. It was funnier in the moment.
6. Tried a group-based homework review that we did in Dr. Dougherty’s class one time. The students divide in groups, discuss a problem and prepare to present their solution and explanation. Then the teacher picks one student (I rolled a die) from the group to present, so the group has to make sure everyone understands. It seemed to work pretty well. I should probably do stuff like that more often.