There must be something about Fridays. They have brought me to tears two Fridays in a row.

My first, third, and fifth periods were all pretty good. Third period was interrupted by my first fire drill, which was pretty funny because neither the kids nor half the teachers had any idea what to do. I smelled some marijuana smoke in the bathroom on my lunch break. All in all, the day was going pretty well.

Then came my seventh period Seniors. I have had students transferring out of my seventh period because of the students in that class, but I didn't think they were that bad. That is, until, today. I saw them turn against me right before my very eyes. I started out with a pretty fun Do Now activity. They seemed to get into it. Then, we had our first vocab quiz. Almost none of them had studied, so they did very poorly. Probably 5 of them passed in the entire class. I told them the only way they would fail is if they cheated. I caught one cheating so I failed him. They were pissed.

Then, I had them count off in fives because I had planned for them to do group work. They groaned, but the first two rows counted off. Some defiant girls in the middle row refused to count their numbers. I started them over about 5 times, and each time, the girls in the middle row would not say their numbers. So, I counted off for them. They would not move into their groups. That's right. They would not get up out of their seats and move into their groups. Talk about an interesting power dynamic. I was f***ed. My lesson counted on them being in groups. I just gave up, and the last 10 minutes were a total waste.

I can't control my freshmen. Same as Thursday. Kids were roaming the halls and trying to get into my class. My freshmen wouldn't do their workbooks. I was actually hit in the back of my head with a paper wad. It was madness. So, to recap, I had no control over the last two periods of the day for Friday.

Oh yeah, the new principal seems to be ruining the school. The veteran teachers are getting pissed because discipline has never been as bad as it is this year. To make matters worse, the new principal has broughten in a cadre from his old school that excels in nothing but giving lip service. Since my department chair is perhaps the most vocal representative of the faculty, the social studies department has been receiving an extra helping of lip service. Apparently, we are a rebellious department that needs to be quelled. Another teacher made some interesting points which I will reproduce here:

My school is a community school. Most of the parents of our students also graduated from it. Because it is a community school, the teachers and community take a special pride in it. They are not going to let things continue like this. Teachers are scared. Students are scared. There are multiple incidents with the police everyday. Two weeks in, and there is almost no meaningful learning taking place. I think the principal will be out before I am.