Last week was the most emotionally draining, eye-opening string of days I have ever been through.
I came into Monday with a plan that I felt good about, even proud of. It laid the foundations for a democratic classroom of invested learners who respect each other and me. That plan did not play itself out. Now, I prepare to go into my second week knowing that two of my students are suspended until their parents and guardians attend a mandatory meeting with the principal and me, and one other has detention for pushing her classmate into a desk.
We had some really great moments: my students wrote great journal entries about people who inspire them, they had fun interviewing each other during a get to know you activities, and in the small opportunities I had to talk to them one-on-one we had some great conversation.
I had to spend a lot of my time though, handling the behaviors of individual students. One of my students has ADHD very severely and didn’t have his medication all last week. He could not focus on anything for more than a minute at a time and if I turned my back to him for a second he would more often than not be on floor rolling around, hitting or yelling at another student, or banging against the walls and cabinets. He is one of the ones who is suspended.
I don’t have the energy right now to record other stories from my week, but there will be plenty more to come.
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