What a tiring day!

I am co-teaching with my fellow 5th grade teacher, Ms. Whitaker. I teach Science and English to our 5th grade classes, and she teachers Math and Social Studies. I meet her class everyday for English and twice a week for Science.

This school year has been interesting. Our classes are not balanced in everything! She has a very active class, where I have the calm one. Her class is also lower academically than mine. My class always complete tasks on time, and my students always engage in class discussions. Her class is not very cooperative, and has a lot of talkers. Her students get distracted very easily. Needless to say, our classes have a difference of night and day.

Today was one of those challenging days. When I entered her class for Science, they were already noisy, and so I waited until everybody has settled. I started teaching, and I could find myself stopping every few minutes waiting for some students to settle down. Many were passing notes, some were facing their classmates behind them, and some were even writing. 30 minutes later, they were still very distracted. I did not lack reminding them to put things away, stop talking, face the board, and even "I really appreciate ____, ___, and ___  for keeping her eyes on me" every five minutes. They were getting more out of control when we almost ended. We did not even finish the lesson. I wanted them to listen to a rap song about cells to make their studying easier. They just made fun of it.

I told them that it seems like they already know the lesson, and they do not need me anymore to teach them. So I told them that starting next meeting, I will just let them read the lesson, then we'll have a quiz after UNTIL they learn how to respect their teachers. I was just upset, I did not feel like I am needed. I felt bad actually over what I told them. I felt like it was punitive.

Hours later, I realized that I really needed to be true to my words. I have to implement what I said, although it would be hard for me NOT to teach. I discussed this with Ms. Whitaker, and she is supporting me with the "punishment" I told her class. I told her that after this "process," we are going to lead the kids to make a contract with us about their behavior. We just finished that story about "The Contract" in Reading class, and it would be timely to implement it.

Sigh. I still keep on thinking, was that the best thing to say to the students? Was it punitive? Was it a teachable moment? That class is really difficult. I keep on praying that God will give me strength everyday as I face that class.

Tomorrow will be a better day, hopefully.