End of Quarter 1

The first quarter ends on Thursday the 28th and I've done almost everything that I wanted to do this year. I won't finish the expository essays before the end of the quarter but that's not a huge deal, it'll be the first grade of the 2nd quarter and the book project has been better than I thought (see post below). The kids are not only better academically, but they're better behaved as well for the most part.

I do have my exceptions, I have a few kids in 5th period that talk to much and one in another class that I had last year. This student is repeating the same mistakes that he did last year, so I finally told him that his homework over the weekend was to decide if he was actually going to make an effort this year and then tell me on Monday which way he wants to go. If he decides not to try I will have him sign a form saying he chooses to fail and then as long as he does not decide to disrupt my class he can learn the hard way. If he chooses to try then I am going to stay on him to make sure he passes.

What I want to happen and what I think will happen are two different things. I hope he decides to actually pass this year, but my gut tells me he could not care any less about his future. So be it, I have enough students who actually want to pass to waste any more energy on someone who doesn't care. If that makes me a bad teacher then I'm guilty as charged but I am reminded of the old Chinese saying that goes something like this. 'Teacher opens door but the student must walk through'...

Finally, I got my dog Charette down to a local grooming school and got her washed, her nails trimmed and even painted in the school colors for spirit week.