As always, I am frustrated with some of my students who just simply seem not to care. I feel like a grouch because I am always, always, always on them, trying to get them to be a student, to do their work, to use their time productively. While I realize this is part of the nature of the beast of 7th graders, I struggle with the way those kids zap my patience for the good ones, the one who do their work, who come to class prepared, and try their hardest. It seems I end up snapping at them because I am out of patience from dealing with the other ones. Especially towards the end of the week, especially towards the end of the day, I struggle to find patience with one more question about something I've said a hundred times, one more struggling student who seemingly can't get the smallest of concepts, and the student who needs constant reassurance that everything they write on their paper is correct.

It seems an almost argument for having flip-flop school days, where every other day, classes are in reverse order, so I could see my end of the day students in the morning on occasion. Or perhaps, a floating schedule, where each hour becomes first hour in a rotation type schedule, Monday being a 1,2,3,4,5,6, the Tuesday, 2,3,4,5,6,1, Wednesday, 3,4,5,6,1,2, and so on. I wonder how different it would be having those students earlier in the day, when my mind is fresh and full of patience and excitement, and their minds are alert, not overstuffed, and eager. Would a schedule like that ever become routine, or would chaos ensue every day?

I would love to experiment with it.... hmmm.... do you think I would get stoned at the next staff meeting???