It's Eeyore Time!

Every Monday, I spend the first couple of minutes having "Piglet Time." We get together in a little circle and talk about how things have been going over the weekend, in the class, and in general. I use this time to try to connect with the kids on a "Not Having To Do With The Classroom" Level. For the most part, it seems to work. The kids enjoy it and let me know a little bit about their real lives outside of school. I also have a platform for discussing issues as needed in the classroom.

Today, I had "Eeyore Time."

Piglet is the happy and optimistic character from the Winnie the Pooh.

Eeyore is not.

He tends to be crabby and gloomy.

I was crabby.

5th Period, the bane of my teaching existence, really irritated me on Tuesday. We took the day off from the textbook to play "AutoCAD Pictionary." The kids play Pictionary, but have to draw all of their clues using AutoCAD instead of pencil and paper. 5th Period whined, complained, cheated, threw chairs, accused me of cheating, etc. It was embarassing.

During "Eeyore Time," I sat everyone down and told them what I thought of their performance on Tuesday. I chewed them out pretty hard.

I had no idea what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised when one of the main culprits in the fiasco on Tuesday actually apologized in front of the class. That was a pretty brave and cool thing for her to do. Others seemed contrite and willing to try to make things better in the future.

We'll see.