Chapter 9:
Stand Your Ground
During the week of December 5th, my 7th/8th block class behaved poorly. I was ready to write up half of the class for excessive talking and insubordination by that Thursday. “Be quiet,” “Shhh!” and “Get back to work!” became my catch phrases. I was a broken record of commands my students decided not to heed. When Friday rolled around, I was fed up.
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That Friday, I had scheduled a review for my students’ upcoming test. My other two classes played a Jeopardy review game. My final class, though, would complete a silent review due to the behavior that week. One problem: the elementary school would be putting on a Christmas program and all non-performers were invited to watch. Due to a lack of communication between the elementary school and the middle school, Mr. Kimbrough gave the middle school teachers the choice to take their class to the performance or not.
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I made the decision to keep my students in the classroom. I didn’t want to reward them for bad behavior and poor focus. Plus, I knew most students would not review for the test outside of my class.
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Dealing with their anger and recalcitrance was the hardest thing I had to do that term. The class pouted. Kevin acted as if I had personally offended him. Shane and Jerry openly glared. I had one hall conference. I received one free write bell ringer from Chelsea informing me I was “very petty.” However, that was the quietest 7th block had been in weeks.
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As a leader, you will make decisions that upset your students. As Dr. Mullins frequently reminded us, “When you’re making decisions in the best interest of children, you are going to upset people.” You can’t back down though. My heart was pounding in my chest, my stomach swooped, and I shook under the pressure, but I maintained control over my classroom. I made that decision based on the best interest of my students’ educations and self-discipline. I felt stronger for following through on an action despite strong dissent.
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Chelsea's Free Write:
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I believe what you did for us not going to the program is very petty. I believe you should have not had a choice to choose how we spent the rest of the day. We should support the little kids but instead we're in this cold classroom doing review. We can do review on Monday, it won't even hurt us that bad. Well, it won't hurt me. You should send the kids that have done all the work, participate in class, and who follows the rules.
Ms. Lindsay's Response:
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I'm sorry you don't agree with my choice, but it was my choice to make. No one is completely innocent of wrongdoing [in this class]. You will have to make a lot of difficult choices when you are an adult too. If you would still like to support the younger students, they do have evening program time as well.
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---> 6:30 in the big gym
