Big Picture Problems

So I feel like up until this point I've been focusing on tiny problems, the ones I could deal with. This week I feel like I've kind of taken a step back and can see the big picture now. I've noticed a few disturbing things...

The 10th grade Vice Principal (whom I respect) had a run-in with a child outside my classroom. C.D. and I had a run in the first day of school, but have been alright since. He knows he can't get away with anything in my class and I called his grandma the first week and complimented him on his changed behavior (after the first day incident). He respects me....he doesn't like me, but he respects me. Well, the poor child got placed in my new Mississippi Studies class. Now he has me A-4 AND B-1. The first day of Mississippi studies he was apparently VERY unhappy about this. I took him outside and talked to him and he calmed down and sat at least. Towards the middle of the period I sent him on a B.S. errand and after he came back he politely raised his hand and said, "If I do this, you're still going to talk to them after school right? This doesn't mean I'm staying." (I had promised him that I would see if he could get his schedule changed--I knew he couldn't, but what's the harm in asking?) I assured him I would and he started his assignment. Yesterday I was talking with the Vice Principal at lunch and mentioned the note I had sent to his office (with C.D.). He was shocked and appalled that I had sent him on an errand. Outside my classroom the day before was the "first time he had encountered the young man" and basically thought he was a horrible person. I kinda explained to him that he just needs a little extra attention....if he believes that I'm trying to help him, he's actually a great kid. The V.P. kinda looked at me funny but laughed.

So today, the bell rings and C.D. walks in my door, slams his books down on a desk he KNOWS is not his assigned seat and gets ready to throw a temper tantrum. I tell him to move desks. He starts to freak out. I ask him to come into the hall with me. They have just come over the intercom and announced "CODE RED" which means lock your doors and they assign anyone caught in the hall detention. In the meantime, I'm trying to calm down a kid who's really angry and wound up and fidgety and looking a little crazy. I don't know what I'm going to do with him, but he needs to either calm down or not come into my room. I decide to write him up because he's not calming down and he keeps saying he's going to go talk to the principal anyway, so I'm thinking "yeah, you can go talk to the principal, when I write you this referral". Well, I'm out there talking with him and the security guard yells to the VP that there are two kids outside my door (the other kid really was late to my class). And tells the kids to go down the hall to the VP (I'm STANDING RIGHT THERE!). I see the VP and kind of motion to him to come over (to help with the kid who has LOST his mind) and he starts lighting into C.D. I try to explain that he wasn't late, but I need help with something else, but he's halfway down the hall and won't come any closer for some reason (I guess someone might get away during the CODE RED). He completely ignores every word coming out of my mouth and takes the kid down there. The kid comes back later and asks for a note to explain that we were talking so he won't get detention. I write the note, the kid comes back and behaves for 60 minutes, I talk to him after class and tell him if he comes in angry like that again, I won't even let him in the room. He needs to leave his problems outside.

I learned a few things:
1. During a CODE RED, only the CODE RED matters...I was within 15 feet of a security guard and the VP with a kid VISIBLY freaking out, and got no help.

2. To the VP, there are "bad kids" and "good kids". A bad kid is ALWAYS doing something bad.

I've also realized over the past few weeks that those kids are the ones closest to my heart. I have one in each class period. They are some of the smartest kids in the school and probably have the toughest problems outside of my classroom, but in my classroom (after a few false starts) they know how things work...I've had 3 of them tell me how much they like my class and one actually acknowledged that he understood my rules and not to give up because kids will take advantage of me. Of course, that was yesterday afternoon and the police pulled him out of my class this morning. That almost made me cry. I probably won't see him for weeks now. I wonder what he did? All three of them spend about every other week suspended, but when they are in my room, they're angels. One of them actually came to tell me last week that he was suspended, that's why he wasn't in my class earlier. Is it strange that these are the students who make my day?

1st block today I noticed how when I have a better lesson plan (lots of connections to modern day events, pictures, music, different activities), the kids are better behaved.

3rd block today I learned that when the kids are horrible from the door, my lesson plan SUCKS, no matter how many pictures or CDs I have. A girl in 3rd block asked me when their marble jar would be filled up (A-1 and B-1 filled up theirs yesterday and today). I REALLY, REALLY had to keep from saying, "When hell freezes over." That class is still my bad class, even with the girl who called me a b*tch suspended...