The first week of school (all over again)

We recently "redid" the middle school in two major ways. First, we "leveled" the kids (grouping them by ability level), so our classes were now completely different (as far as who is in which class). In some cases this was a good thing (we were able to separate some kids who shouldn't be together, and it put all of our more advanced--and generally better-behaved kids--into one class. The flip side of this, of course, is that all the lower students (who are also more likely to be the "problem-behavior" kids) are all in the same class, as well. (Remember me telling you about the one class who was giving me some problems, the class I had to lay the smack down on? Well, at least before, roughly half the class were "good," well-behaved kids. Now we've taken the worst-behaved kids from both 7th grade classes and stuck them all together. Yes, FANTASTIC idea.)

Second, we completely overhauled the schedule, making room for an entire extra period--for most kids, this is a reading intervention class. Guess who's teaching the lowest-level reading group for all of middle school (6th AND 7th; we combined grades for this particular period)? Yup. The brand-new teacher. Again, FABULOUS idea.

Anyway, since both the classes and the schedule have changed, this past week was basically like the first week of school all over again. In a sense, that was good for me--it allowed me to go back and "redo" some of my "learning experiences" from the first few weeks of class. It also let me come in strong (and stay that way) in my new Class From Hell (as we affectionally call it). And so far, so good--that's not to say that the kids have been perfect or that my classroom management is exemplary--far from it. However, when the principal came in for an "impromptu observation" during the CFH yesterday, they were all 1) in their seats 2) quiet and 3) participating in the class discussion.

It was my most successful, exciting and proud moment so far this year.