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2001-09-26 - 6:06 p.m. I am still kind of reeling about the whole strike thing. Today I went in at exactly eight and left at exactly four. I think the other teachers did too. One of the new teachers has been out with pnemonia, though, so he didn't even know about the strike vote. He's a Social Studies teacher, so, of course, very excited about the strike. I guess that might not be an "of course" just because he's a Social Studies teacher, but it seems like Social Studies teachers would be all into it because they would know the history of lots of labor movements and other kinds of unity. Hmmm. Sometimes I wonder if I should have been a history teacher but I am not that great at remembering facts. I did manage to sneak a little bit of work home with me to do. I am used to not taking work home because usually I don't bother doing it anyway. I sometimes do planning at home but I can't grade at home--besides my gradebook is on my computer at school. Kids keep asking me when the journals are due. I don't know what to tell them because it takes a long time to grade them and I would have to take them home. A stack of 30 or more journals is a bit obvious. There aren't any Teacher-don't-work-at-home-Nazis spying on us or anything, but still I will be disloyal or whatever to bring them home. This is really cramping my style. Oh, the other thing is that the strike starts Oct. 8th and grades are due on Oct. 10th. I wonder if they planned it that way or not. I started to write an email to our building rep but then got paranoid because the district office can read all our email. I had a good day today after yesterday's fiascos. All of the kids that I had yesterday that acted so awful for me when I subbed for the other teacher were angels again today. I don't know what it was that made them act so weird yesterday. I also was able to talk to the kid that I gave a referral to and kicked out of my room yesterday. I had him in class today and made him move to another seat because he was once again talking instead of journaling. He acted sort of pissy but moved. I decided to ask him to stay after class and talk for a few minutes. So I asked him to sit down and I explained to him that I wanted him to do well in my class and I know that he failed most of his classes last year since I got a note about that from the counsellor. I only ask him to move and bug him about not talking because I want him to be successful and not fail (which is is currently doing). He started out by not looking at me but as I talked he actually started looking at me and seeming less angry. I then said that I understand that he might be angry because of what happened the day before but that I didn't want it to affect our relationship and I basically had no choice since he refused to move. I also mentioned that by getting mad and sitting and doing nothing today he was really just hurting himself. When I asked him what he thought we could do to make sure he passed he said he thought he should stay sitting in his new seat (!) Anyway, when he left he actually said bye to me and seemed a lot less angry. I am so glad that went well because by asking a kid that is already mad at you to stay after to talk about it you risk them refusing to stay and leaving, thus equaling more punishment. I hope that he actually will do well. I wonder what the deal is with him. I was thinking about calling his parents but I guess I will wait on that since we seem to have a new understanding. I haven't unpacked anything still. I am just exhausted. I am actually finally reading a new book. It's called Holler if You Hear Me by Nathan McCall. It is really good so far. It's amazing how much I can get read in one day of Reading Day. I read six periods since I always read with the kids and I end up reading about 100 pages or something like that. It is nice... Still haven't heard from the lawyer of my landlord.
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