Yeah, yeah...it's another new post...quit pretending to faint

Okay, so I'm still struggling with finding a way to reach the outwardly challenging students. You know the ones; the disrespectful, defiant, disruptive kids that seem to suck all of their teachers' energy and time as they hoard as much of the attention that they can conceivably steal. At first, I set out to put an end to this kind of thing by establishing a lunch detention. Sadly, the students this would most benefit are the 8th graders whom I can't hold a lunch detention for because...well..I have lunch duty then. However, as time went on I noticed that the same students tended to be frequent fliers in the lunch detention program. Apparently sitting in my room, peacefully eating their lunch away from their friends and having to clean my room wasn't much of a deterrent and the only real person I was punishing was myself. I was rewarding the students with what they wanted most, my attention and yet was still having my attention diverted from the other students who actually deserved to have it for following directions and cooperating in class.

So, I abolished lunch detention since it was serving no real purpose and began inviting students who I felt would appreciate spending some time hanging out in my room with me. We eat our lunch, discuss whatever topics they present and then end the lunch period with a strategy board game. It sure beats the hell out of what passes for recess in middle school, that's for damn sure. What is my goal? Why am I doing this? I'm planting seeds. That's right, I'm building relationships with some of my younger students (6th and 7th graders) who will hopefully be around for the next year or two. My hope is that by doing this I will have reached some of the students that might have either gotten lost in the shuffle because they're more reserved or quiet (the non-squeaky wheels) and helped to strengthen their self confidence or possibly break them out of their shells a bit. I'm also performing some PR not just for our school because we want to keep the good kids, but also some self-serving PR, so that as I continue to establish myself at the middle school, I'm not just the mean Art teacher that actually assigns seats and expects students to actually earn their grades, but is the Art teacher that goes above and beyond, who cares about his students and takes the time to get to know them.

Is it working? Hell, I have no idea. But I do know one things for sure, I'm enjoying lunch "detention" a whole lot more than I ever did before. And yeah, I also sometimes let the kids beat me. LOL.

Hello Again. Is anyone even still there?

Ugh. I feel terrible that I have to keep resuscitating my blog due to my hectic schedule and procrastinating tendencies. So, if anyone even still visits here, thanks for at least visiting to see if anything new has been added and for those of you that have given up hope that I'd post, well, I'd apologize and all, but since you gave up coming here you'll never know how sorry I am.

Okay, so middle school is still ever so challenging and trying. (Not that I expected it to suddenly be a walk in the park mind you.) I am growing and becoming more accustomed to the middle school way of life, but I must say that in some regards it's pretty damned depressing that the our communities and cultural climate is such a mess. I gotta assume that in some way things have always been this way, because I remember hearing adults say "kids today..." but holy crap!! When and where I grew up, we didn't have to worry about people bringing guns to school (unless maybe it was hunting season and they were on a gun rack in the back of the pickup--which I gotta hope doesn't still go on), there was no worry about bloodshed should a gang leader be executed, teachers and adults in general weren't blatantly disrespected on a continual and relentless basis (to their face) and people in general didn't publicly air their dirty laundry or worse yet wear it like some badge of honor.

What happened to our sense of pride and shame? Where did our civility go?

Sometimes I genuinely feel as though I'm a sane person in the midst of a mad world. How did I get here? How can I get back to my home planet? Was I just completely naive as a child? Had my parents done THAT good a job in sheltering me from the craziness that has simply been around forever or have things really gotten exponentially worse for all our technological advancements?

As Thanksgiving came and went this year, I spent a great deal of time reflecting on the things I'm thankful for: My family and friends first and foremost, the fact that I have established a decent and somewhat comfortable living for myself, and that despite everything I am still an inherently and outwardly good human being. And now that Christmas is quickly approaching I am looking forward to the time that I get to spend with the people I love. Never have these moments been so important to me. I hope everyone that visits my site (either intentionally or through happenstance) and reads this post, takes the time to appreciate the good things they have in their life and really makes time to cherish them.

If I don't make it back beforehand, Happy Holidays!