Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I guess I had to skip yesterday since I posted on Friday.

Yesterday was a tad discouraging. The vice principal got a call from a parent who said that her kid told her I'm mean and that he's scared of me. This kid cries at the drop of a hat. This morning he was high-fiving me so I suspect that he came out with those claims in response to a bad grade or something. That's how it often happens. Then the parent gets a very one-sided story. Anyway, while I realize it was probably a very unreasonable claim it still weighs on me somewhat that a kid would even claim that he's scared of me. I'm trying to be more gentle I guess but not too much so. This class will take advantage of that.

We have this reward system where each kid has a card with a circle representing each day in this grading period. As long as the kid returns all homework each day and is good then he gets a hole punched in that day's circle. If he/she doesn't turn in homework or gets his/her name on the board with a check by it then he/she doesn't get a punch that day. So now this Friday is a big celebration day and each kid that gets 42 punches or more (85% of the total punches) gets to take part. Those with less punches have to sit in the library and work on stuff all morning. I have about 7 that have no chance at getting 42 punches by Friday. Most of it is because of not turning in homework on time. Today the principal came by my class and asked the kids "Who thinks they're going to be able to take part in the celebration day this week?!" Every single kid in my class raised a hand. Some of these kids are dreaming. I tried to prepare them for the sting of finding out they can't take part by telling them all that they need to think back to how many times they didn't have homework done on time or their names on the board and that there are some in the class that will not be taking part. I don't know how they'll react when they actually find out. It's too bad. I have one student who is very smart and doesn't really misbehave much but he has habitually not had his homework done this grading period and he will not be taking part. I think he's one that is going to express surprise.

I stayed after and got a lot of grading done today. That was good.

Well, I'm out. Later.

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