Even Steven?

Hmmmm, so the 7th graders from Hades broke even on the +/- chart. Still, I recommended to the teacher in the notes that she NOT give them a reward or party. Here's why:

1) They lost points on the really basic stuff: being quiet for directions, staying in their seat for directions, etc.

2) The obnoxiousness was spread evenly around the room, I think there was maybe one kid I didn't have to call out on a major issue in the whole group. I would feel bad if there were 5 or 6 great kids or if it was just the boys being bad or whatever, but everyone had their moment of awful.

Thank goodness I get high schoolers the rest of the week!

The score

+ :0
- :7

They actually had 2 + points, but I caught a kid trying to add more and so erased them all. I was pretty pissy at this point.

In related news, a discussion has started on a friend's facebook about the fact that two substitutes have walked off the job this week at her school. Questions raised: are there days that the money is just not worth it? Are there consequences for subs for this? Is there any responsibility of the admin to make sure it does not reach that point?

Thoughts?

Why do I agree to this?

So today, and for the next three days, I'm back in the classroom mentioned here, the one where the same group of seventh graders come by three times, for math, social studies, and a horrible space of time called SSR/leadership/study hall, in which nothing in the title gets done. I honestly don't know why I agreed to this, except that this teacher has been very good to me and my pocketbook in the past and I want to maintain that relationship. Also, as I work on my math endorsement, I want to keep her as a friend/mentor/reference. So, I take on her horrible seventh graders.
Today I actually instituted the "marks on the board" system, that aged piece of classroom management that modern educators rail against. Mine is set up in a = / - T-Chart and if by the end of the day Tuesday they have more on the + side, they get a treat when the teacher comes back. They get negative points if they are still talking at the end of a "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" countdown or if they are doing naughty things with the rulers, and positive points for doing well with the countdown, cleaning up, or all finishing the assignment on time.
Score so far ... 7/7. This roughly translates to "you weren't so awful that Ms. GT is going home to cure her migraine with a bottle of Jack and a bullet, but there is room for improvement."

In-a-pinch movie

For the last two days, I have been subbing in a middle school math room. Stressful enough, but I had the same group of obnoxious seventh graders three periods a day! (Math, Social Studies, and Study Hall.) Ugh. So today, I brought in a rented DVD of "Life," a show that was on the Discovery Channel a while back. It (mostly) saved the day: the boys got really engrossed in the Komodo Dragon hunting scenes and the Ibex calf hopping around cliff faces. Some of the girls chose to gossip in the corner, but at that point I really didn't care. We watched one episode during Social Studies and another during Study Hall, and boy did it save my sanity!