The stress levels are out of control this week. It was between third and fourth period, and I was out in the hall doing my duty, when I heard the fight before I saw it...the thud of a fist hitting a face. I ran toward the fight, and as I summed up the combatants and didn't see any other teachers around, I ran back to my classroom to call for assistance. Apparently the first one was a "clique" fight between someone and those from Haughville. Then two more fights during lunch. How do you think that class went? No one can concentrate well on reviewing Spanish verbs after that.
The rest of the week has been calmer violence-wise, but still stressful as I must teach all of my classes every day, no half days, no work days, and am expected to have all my grades in by Monday. The worst part is for my biggest behavior problems, I have even fewer sticks left than before. What do they care if they lose points? They've already failed my class! What do they care if I write them up?
And then there's the heartache...losing kids to the void of "withdrawl" after months of trying to help them, seeing kids screw it all up at the last minute, and having kids trying to raise their grade by about 30 percentage points in one day. (won't happen, guys!) One of my kids who I thought for a long time was going to make it withdrew. And another one who was way under 50% all semester also withdrew.
One more day, and I will have made it through every second of this semester, with every imaginable stress. Then we'll see how next semester goes!
