It doesn’t happen very often at school but once in a while the
students behave in such a way as to bring the old Army Sergeant out in me.
Today was one of those days.
The day started out with my homeroom class being a little wound
up. They settled down once the lesson got started. And they stayed settled down
until after they came back from their elective class. Based on the way they
were behaving, they left all their quiet common sense in their elective class.
On the other hand, according to their elective teachers, the
students left all their quiet common sense in their homeroom classes. I’m
sensing a pattern here. Perhaps quiet common sense is in drastically short
supply among today’s middle grades students.
I did get them settled down and on task again with enough time
to finish the lesson we’d started earlier.
It wasn’t my homeroom class that brought out the Sergeant Davis
in me.
Sergeant Davis came out after lunch. The situation that brought
him out occurred after my second period class was seated, quiet, and listening
to the lesson. Out in the hall there arose such a clatter that Sergeant
Davis stormed out to see what was the matter.
What was the matter was my third period class, who were supposed
to be in Language Arts, were lined up in the hallway outside the Language Arts
classroom. They were waiting for my colleague to get back from taking a
student to the office for a discipline infraction during lunch. Since there was
no teacher in the hall with them, this particular group of students decided
they could talk, laugh, shout, bang on the lockers, and carryon in any fashion
they wished. Sergeant Davis soon set them straight on that.
A short time later, someone showed up with a key to my
colleague’s room and the class went in and sat down. My colleague was still in
the office so the third member of our teaching team, whose Math classroom is
right next door to the Language Arts classroom, was keeping an eye on both
classes. Because of where my room is located, I cannot monitor my room and
either of my colleagues’ rooms at the same time.
Very little time had passed before I heard the third member of
my team raising her voice to tell the unruly group that they had better sit
down and get started on the work they’d been doing before they’d left for
lunch.
Only another couple of minutes passed before one of the elective
teachers, on his planning period, happened to walk by and had to speak harshly
to both other classes as both thought to take advantage of my third colleague’s
attention being split between them.
No, I’m afraid that wasn’t the end of it. While my second period
class, usually the worst behaved of the three, continued to act in a
classroom appropriate manner and tried to stay on task, the Language Arts room
once again erupted into noise and confusion. Sergeant Davis got up and walked
calmly to the door, gave my second period class a warning look that had been
known to bring grown men near to tears, and then he crossed the hall.
My Sergeant Davis self used no profanity or unprofessional
language in letting that class know how much trouble they were in, but he made
it very clear that consequences would be forthcoming. Then he pulled out the
big guns and told them how disappointed he was in all of them. That got to
them. From then until my colleague returned from the office, there was no
further trouble out of that class and they actually got some of their work
done.
I do not like it when I have to morph into my Sergeant Davis
self. That is not the kind of teacher I want to be. And my students know if
Sergeant Davis comes out, they have gone too far.
When that class came to me for Science during third period, they
were one of the most sedate, cooperative, and well-behaved classes you could
ever want to see. I only wish it didn’t take putting the fear of unpleasant
consequences into them to get them to behave the way they should behave all the
time.
After a day like today,
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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