Bad Day

Today was a bad day. And it was my fault. Which made it an even bad-er day.

It started off just fine. I got a lot of planning done over the weekend and have my whole week ready to go. I was slatted to administer the HSPA re-take on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday so I had everything set and was ready to give directions to my students.

Period 2: Forgot half the things I needed to tell my students. Spent the first 20 minutes of class talking at them about logistics. Lame way to start a Monday. Then struggled with them through the material that they understood on Friday but I managed to make more confusing today.

Period 3: Was thrown off by the previous class not going according to plan. Rushed to get Do Now up on the board which some how the kids still don't understand that they're supposed to do it... now. Then realized that they didn't get the homework from the previous day and I wanted to review it. So the review took much longer than planned and I barely got through the intended lesson. No time to practice, so the kids have most likely already forgotten it.

Lunch Duty: Went in. Was told that I need to meet with the principal to go over details of the HSPA and so I needed to take my lunch now and meet in half an hour. I would miss my Period 6 class but my coordinator would cover it for me, I just need to write up the plans for her.

End of Lunch: Check my e-mail before heading downstairs to find that there was a new HSPA proctor and examiner list sent out and my name wasn't on it.

Meeting: Go downstairs. Get affirmation from the principal that they joined two of the testing rooms so they didn't need all the teachers. Since I'm so busy they decided to have me not do it and let me get back to class. Felt slightly weird about that because I'm no busier than the other math teacher who is still giving the test. Felt like I was being dismissed cause I complained too much or something, but I don't think I did. So that threw me off.

Period 6: Officially flustered as I'm still trying to get better at being flexible. Class goes ok. Several of the students were having bad days and were not participating.

Period 7: Special education coordinator comes to observe some of the classified students in my class, which is a disaster for even the students who are on-level academically since there are 29 kids packed into my room, the majority of them disrespectful and talkative most of the time and it's impossible to stay focused. I also had a gigantic stack of papers to pass back. The kids all decided to skip out on the first 10 minutes of class...awesome. We got started late, by the time I passed back their things I was ridiculously off schedule and flustered since there was someone else in my room watching. Period ended with too quick of a lesson, not enough practice, and me saying "oh well, it's your fault you still need to do the homework" and to top it all off I lost patience and yelled. Great.

Period 8: My face was red and flustered from Period 7. Didn't get anything prepped so the kids came in and I was just done mentally. Tried to act not too affected by my day. The kids were great and understanding. But due to my lack of caring and lack of management by the end of the class period there was a lot of unruly chatter and confusion as the kids were talking over me and I couldn't get anything done.

End of day: Student comes in for extra help (finally someone is using my offer to stay after school.. just happened to not be the day I felt like doing it). Ended up with him probably more confused than when he came in.

Post-end of the day: Find out a student has a problem with me. Don't know why, don't know why... cherry on top of the cake.

Finally leave school: Stop at the gym cause if I don't I'll be even more miserable since I was planning on going for the first time in 2 months. Ended up only staying for 20 minutes. Lame. Went grocery shopping. Not a good idea to do when you're upset and hungry and tired.

El fin.

Lessons learned:
1. I still have a lot to learn as a teacher.
1b. I'm really not that good at instruction. If another student raises their hand and says, "I don't understand," I might cry.
1c. I have no idea what to do when one student doesn't get it but I'll lose the rest of the class if I stop to help that one and I have no times in between classes to have them stay and no one comes to my room after school for assistance.
2. My bad mood definitely affects my students, which I see more now that I have 5 classes a day instead of being with the same students. Before it was easy to just blame the bad days on them. Now it is very clearly mostly because of me.
3. I need to find a better way to pass back homework. My procedures suck in my classroom and they are causing me to flounder.
4. I need to be better prepared with modifications and extra work so students of all levels can function and learn.
5. I still talk too much. I need to let the kids practice more. At least the first few weeks were jam-packed with hands on fun things. I guess I can take a hit this week.

Here's to tomorrow.