Do we get the behavior out of students we deserve? That we expect (in the sense of expectations)? I think so. I tend to have very high standards, but I seem to fight a losing battle sometimes with this, getting undermined by other teachers. I will fight and fight with students to bring their materials to class, a reasonable expectation in my humble opinion. I then find out that other teachers are lackadaisical in this, and are constantly giving the students paper, pencils, etc. Arrgh!

Power teaching seems to be a big hit with my students, most are buying in. Funny, they take right to "class-yes", but seem scared of "teach-ok" despite my modeling it. Weird. My use of the scoreboard has made it easier to keep up with how to reward points at the end of a period, and it gives the kids instant feedback as to how they are doing in respect to their behavior, my expectations, and keeping their teacher "happy". :) I am really looking forward to using this method. I think it has re-energized me to certain extent, and I think it has re-energized the kids too.

So much to do so little time between grading papers, getting students to turn in missing work, writing up the ones who don't, writing notes home to make parents aware, etc. I'm going to start an e-mail distribution list at the end of this week to keep the parents in the loop. Unfortunately, the majority of the parents that have responded to the note I sent home, are the ones that do not need to worry about their child. Most of the ones I need to keep in touch with have given me no response. Oh well, I can't save all of these kids from themselves or their parents!

Oh well, that's it for today, it's been one of those 12+ hour days with staying after school to supervise a ballgame. Off to bed for this kid.