More Firsts

Today was rough too, but no tears. I felt like I had some back-up today, knowing that my class is not the only wild one and that all the other middle school teachers are having issues with their kids and the rules. It felt less like me=bad cop, everybody else=good cop. I just have to keep reminding myself to stay calm and keep going. I'm still trying to find my footing and I know that that is losing me some ground with the kids so I've got to find it fast. I am realizing more now that a lot of my training this summer was geared toward elementary or high school kids. I didn't have any professors will a whole lot of experience or advice about middle school kids and it obvious that they are a whole other animal.

So I got punched today.

A couple of my kids broke out into a fight in the hall and I was the only teacher there at first so of course I was the one to try and break it up. One of them hit me in the chest trying to get to the other one. Didn't do any damage or anything but it made for an interesting afternoon. I seem to do a lot of fight prevention and so far it's been nothing but empty threats. I have one student (one who was fighting today) who seems to have some anger issues and was making threats all day. The other in the fight tries hard but still has some behavior issues and I haven't given him a good atmosphere to work with the last couple of school days.

There's gotta be something I can do to get this situation under control and let the kids see that there is so much more that they can do, so much more to the world. So much better that they can be.