tales from the back of the room

Still another hot summer-like day. I sat outside with Emily at lunch with a backdrop of zinnias buzzing with bees and the antics of teenage boys who in spite of their remarkable homophobia, tend to be very prone to grabbing each other.

Is it just me or do the sophmores seem like they're starting to settle down a bit? The tenth graders seem like they're starting to come out of their summer personas and starting to act more like real students. The affectionately-named "Class from hell" didn't even seem all that bad today. Still a bit too much whiny-ness for my taste (a pet peeve), but way less negativity. A certain trio of immature teenage boys still feels the need to contribute a lot of unproductive talk and off-task behavior, no doubt intended to "liven up the class atmosphere", a need only they perceive to exist. But even this is decreasing, ever so slightly. It would be fabulous if the unproductive comments were outnumbered the useful things they DO contribute to class. However, at the time of writing, the score is still 2-1, but there's always a chance for a comeback by the second half). In honor of their heroic-if-amateur efforts, I have come up with some names to go with the roles they seem to want to fill and enjoy playing: "Devil's Advocate", "Addicted to Noise", and "Gasoline on the Fire".

They seemed to do well on their first vocabulary quizes of the year. Although I tried to talk one kid into doing the vocabulary section he had left blank, I guess he wasn't in the mood and elected to leave it blank. As they say, "You can lead a horse to the water...", (an expression I have often found myself using to describe the
behavior of high school boys).

I got to bust out one of my tentative recently-learned Ken Peterson moves on a kid today. I caught him doing something that personally bothers me (now that I'm older and wiser)--writing on the desk when he thought no one was looking at him. Then he turned around and saw I was looking at him. He held the stare to see if I'd look
away but I converted my "simply observing" look into something closer to "the look of death". He turned back around but kept at it, so I decided to go for it, got up, walked over to him and dropped an "I-message" on him. To his credit, he stopped fooling around, and didn't grumble or complain or make any comments. It was gratifying and fun to see it work. I so rarely get to catch kids "in the act".

I can't say it enough--Practicum is such a fun class. It reminds me of a much larger version of the extended-day program I used to work at when I was at Marshall, only during the day. It amazes me how well such a large group stays on task. Due to the more individualized nature of the class, you develop a slightly different flavor of
relationship with the kids...it's more like an elective in that sense. Now if I could only learn the names of all those girls. There's so many of them.

Speaking of girls, there's one who seems to need a little extra attention. Since she popped on my radar, I've made a point of checking in with her a lot during class just to make sure she's keeping up with what's happening. I don't know if
she's having a rough transition to high school or if she has other stuff going on, but she seems like someone who could use some extra keepin'-an-eye-on.

Anyhow, that's my thoughts about today's events and perspectives from the backside of the room.