This is going to be harder than anything I have ever done.

My schedule got extremely messed up in the intricacies and intrigues of the Miami-Dade Public School system. On Friday, I had to give up my keys to another teacher and was told I "didn't show up" on the master schedule. I took it pretty well. Things had been going too perfect for me. It was about time the other shoe dropped.

On Monday, I had to "hold" a reading class. Basically, I was a substitute for a day. It was pretty easy. The students were just checking me out and they didn't really test me. The day was still completely chaotic. Students were not registered. Parents were running about. The schedule changed period by period. The only goal of the first day, as my principle said, was to "Count them, feed them, and send them home." I taught a mini-lesson on intonation, and the students had some fun with it. I read to my homeroom class and we had pretty good discussions.

I got my permanent classroom and schedule on Monday afternoon. My room is pretty good for my school. I have windows whose hurricane shutters actually work. I have a computer, overhead, and a lockable chest. The previous teacher left me plenty of posters to cover up the walls that badly need to be painted. My schedule is pretty good as well. I teach six periods of American government to Seniors. I teach one period of Freshmen Orientation.

My Seniors were pretty manageable today. They definitely viewed me as an outsider. I don't fit in because I am white and I wear a tie. They made some very intelligent comments and they were well behaved for the most part. In fourth period, "Shary" gave me a very hard time. Shary has bleached yellow hair with pink bangs and huge earings. She is medium height and stout. She is incredibly smart. She tested me the whole time. She didn't like the raising hand rule. She thought the rules and procedures lesson was extraneous. "Just give me the work and I'll do it," she said. "You don't need to treat me like a kid." I had finished explaining that there was no profanity or putdowns in my class. I said that racial slurs, homophobic and sexist comments were included in this category. About a minute later, Shary said "nigga" about something. I jumped on it immediately, giving her a warning. She raised her hand, so I called on her. She proceded to lecture me, and the entire class, on the origins of the word nigga and the differences between nigga and nigger. She made some good points. I stressed that whatever the case, that word would not be used in my class. Shary shut down until a class discussion on the state of nature at the end. Fun stuff.

The most amazing thing happened in my eighth period class. Satan's children, disguised as freshmen, walked into my class and started pushing me towards suicide. Then, more of these demons came in. Then, some more. Five minutes into class, I had 37 terror children making a mockery of my training and my lesson. I didn't get through my rules and procedures, and I didn't get through the name activity. For about 15 minutes, I had NO control of my class. They would not keep quiet. I couldn't give them any information because they weren't listening. I tried the TFA tricks. They didn't work. Some of them (like the call and response to settle the buzz) made the situation worse. I was so frustrated and helpless. Finally, I tried the last thing I could think of. A veteran teacher had told me that he always throws a desk on the first day of school. I grabbed a desk from the front of the room and threw it towards the chalk board. I sent fear into the spines of about 70% of the class. The other 30% thought it was funny, and continued to terrorize me. I kept two students after class. I'm calling a combination of students and parents tonight. A new seating chart will be ready for Thursday when I see them next. Tonight I'm going to nail down my lessons for tomorrow and get some much needed sleep. I can't wait for the weekend when I'll have two full days to get more prepared.

Mr. Moore