OK, Today, I Sucked.

I suppose that in every teacher's life there are a couple of days where you pretty much don't cut it. You were the starting pitcher and gave up 8 runs in the first inning and things went downhill from there.

Today was such a day.

It was an "Even" period class day. 2nd period went pretty well. The kids are wrapping up their Flash projects. This is a great class, with a number of hardworking and creative kids. You know, the kind that you don't have to say anything to, they just get to work and crank out good stuff. Mr. Jewett and I have talked and he says that I can do my "Computer Graphics" project with this class. They have the talent and the drive to produce some good stuff, I think. I will start that next week sometime. I am looking forward to it.

Fourth period, I spent grading the Computer Timeline projects for my 8th period class. These assignments were to have been completed a week or so ago, it's just that nobody has graded them yet. Out of a class of 23, there were about 7 As, 5 Bs, 5 Cs and 6 Ds or lower. As the class has moved on to another project, I thought that I would help the kids go over their Timeline in class and make some adjustments to their work and resubmit for a higher grade, if they wished. That came later.

6th Period went fairly well, the kids are completing their Business site projects and are halfway into their Candidates Frames page. This is the assignment that is driving me nuts, as Mr. Jewett is explaining it person by person. Some kids are getting it all done, though and the stuff looks pretty good.

8th period went right downhill. I am struggling with one kid in particular in the class, H. He is in both my 1st period Computer I class and my 8th Period Computer Skills class. He is a pleasant enough kid to talk to and appears to be pretty bright when he tries, but I struggle to get him to do much of anything in class. He is always getting up, moving around the class, bothering other kids and generally disrupting the learning environment. I have tried to talk to him on a number of occasions, but nothing seems to last more than a couple of minutes. He was "jumping" around the back of the computer lab in his chair, which makes alot of noise and is very disruptive. I brought him to a computer in the front of the class. After a minute or so, another student walked by and H. tripped him, almost knocking him down to the floor. I sent him to ISS. I know that this sounds like a cop-out, but I am at a little bit of a loss as to how to help him.

H. worked long and hard on the "Skateboarding" scavenger hunt that I gave him at the start of Computer I. He was on task and completing work for most of the day. The other activities, in either class, have not done it for him and he has done little to nothing. I am not sure if I should try to reach out and find something special for him to work on that will keep him interested or what. Argh.

Anyway, the rest of 8th period stunk. I was poorly managing the class, spending time helping kids repair their projects while the rest of the class got out of hand. I really did not like the atmosphere at all and felt like I wasn't teaching, but running a zoo, poorly.

Then we had our study hall period. Mr. Jewett had a meeting to attend, so I was on my own. I had given 5 kids study hall passes to come to the Lab to work on their projects. Unfortunately, Ms. Kimball and Ms. Francis also gave out about 5 passes each for their kids to come to the lab as well. We already have about 14 kids in study hall, add another 15 kids, all looking to work on computers in a 25 computer lab and you can just see the hilarity ensue.

Starting tomorrow, monitors will be off in Study Hall and kids will only be able to turn on their computers if they have specific computer related schoolwork to do. That might help.

Now, I have to come up with a lesson plan for 1st period tomorrow and see if I can avoid another fiasco like 8th period today.