Finals and Foreigner

Well it's official. I made my first student cry today. Sure, I've had students cry in class before for other reasons, but this girl today definitely had tears running down her face because of me and my class. This suggested to me today that perhaps I built up this two-day final exam a little bit too much. I felt bad that she was this distraught because of me, and it took about half the day to remember that the reason why she was so worried about failing the final exam was because she only shows up about half the time, almost always tardy. Problem is, though, that she is a really great kid and tries really hard, so I'm really hoping that she can surprise us both and pass this test.

In reflecting on the year, I have a lot of students like her. It seems that a lot could be solved in class if the school culture were improved a bit so that the students would actually feel the importance of making it to school on time - or at all quite frankly. And then of course these students with terrible attendance records act totally offended when I tell them during the test that I can't answer their question, and no, I can't "just check" their work. I want to visit the class where all my students built these expectations of what tests are like in their minds. It amazes me.

I doubt you all care about the humongous countdown I have at the top of the page, but I feel like some days it is my source of life. And yes, I agree that needing a constant reminder of how much time is left probably indicates that I don't really like my job, but we've been having some of the worst behavior problems in class since the beginning of the year. I had a student yesterday break a pencil in six places (which is actually really hard to do) just so that he would have ammunition to throw at a classmate across the room. He was suspended for today, but that's just one more day that he's behind everyone else. I swear this school needs to revamp its discipline system somehow. I think I can handle these antics happening in Algebra, but now even my best class spends a significant amount of class time bouncing off the walls. So giving the final exam today and tomorrow for all my classes at the same time was a great idea. Today my entire day was more or less silent in class, and I expect the same for tomorrow. Unfortunately though I will need to spend the extended weekend thinking of just what I am going to do for all the students that chose to miss the final today for whatever reason. I wonder if I will see them again before school gets out in two weeks. For some of them, I really doubt it.

I'm sure that some of the craziness in class is because the students can tell that I am mentally done with this year. We have a countdown on the board, so they know I'm just as excited as they are, and my case of procrastination is getting more and more severe. It is amazing some days how I could possibly manage to get a lesson put together in time for class. These are my adrenaline-fueled lesson plans I guess. And this is a pretty typical Scott-thing for me to think, but I am going to be so much better planned out next year! My new-academic-year's resolution is to never have to lesson plan the night before ever again.

For now though, the craziness is part of my daily routine, especially when I choose sacrifice lesson planning time for a rock concert. But I will have you know that no lesson plan, no matter how amazing, would have been worth missing seeing Foreigner, Styx, and Kansas playing in the Bay Area, all at the same venue. Kansas was good - a little too vintage for me - and Styx was awesome - despite their hoards of white trash fans - but Foreigner was amazing. Their lead singer sounds exactly the same as Lou Gramm did, and the whole experience reminded me how much I would have loved to live during the Beatles-era onward. Anyway, this whole thing showed me that I really need to get my stuff organized enough so that I can still have a life on weekday nights. For now, that might just mean driving to North Bay to see old rock groups play - Chicago and the Doobie Brothers in three weeks!