Spitwads

As regular readers of my blog may remember I had a certain class last semester that was the pain in my neck so to speak. It had gotten to the point where I dreaded that 90 minutes of class time for about a month until things sorted themselves out and they became a decent class of 9th graders.


I recently picked up a new long term assignment teaching 8th grade math and I now have a new albatross around my neck called 6th period. I knew they were going to be a handful from the minute they entered the class last week. They're rude, chatty and have little desire to work.

Today they reached a new high or low depending on your point of view. Not only did they get to stay an extra three minutes today, but I had two kids decide that 6th period was a grand ole time for a spit-wad war. Yes, you read that correctly... spit-wads. Now it's not like a spit-wad going through a pen makes a rather unique sound or anything or that I had a good idea of who was involved, but I actually got to see them use their blow guns... All I did was quietly walk by them and tell them to see me after class. And one of the two spit-wad warriors then argued with me when I told him to remove his hood and then to take off his sweatshirt when he did not comply quickly enough. Then I had a third student decide that today was a good day for art and confiscated not one but two drawings. He also got to stay after the class for a little heart to heart.

After the class left I locked the door and let the three of them know in no uncertain terms just how unhappy I was with their collective behavior. I told them that the next time I had even a bit of trouble with them I would simply sign and date the already filled out dean's referal forms and they could explain all their behavior to them. I then proceeded to list the things they had done to irritate me. One student was staring daggers at me the whole time like he wanted to throw down with me. So I looked straight at him and said "Do you have a problem with me? Because I have a problem with you and your behavior in my class!", which he liked even less. After a few more minutes of me letting them know that 'homie don't play that game' I made sure that we understood each other and off they went. As I walked out one of the students was out front and as I passed by him he told me "no more spit-wads", I told him "good, because I have the paperwork all filled out on my desk".

Now we'll see if the other two figure it out or not. My guess is that the artist is going to the dean's office and soon, he needs to see how tough I really am and if I'll really follow through on my promises...



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