Cursed

My 7th period is cursed. 

At this point I am ready to beg, hands and knees beg, my administration to give me 7th period off next year. 
One can wish.

Semester One:

My 7th period was a joke, a mess, utter chaos. Day two, a 'bridges' kid walked into my room grabbed all of the warm ups jumped on a table and made it rain. His 'supervisor' aka shadow just followed him and watched, I think he asked him to get down. All I could do was stare in disbelief. Week two, two large boys (taller and heavier than me) got into a knock down bloody fist fight and had to be separated...over markers. 
Yes you read that right. 

But I didn't quit because I am a glutton for punishment. Or something like that.

Semester Two:

My 7th period started off better, but really when you start at chaos there is only one way to go, up. Most of the kids would stay seated and a few of them even tried to work. Then our read 180 teacher had to take leave for the rest of the semester so she had a permanent sub. The 7th/8th block was a 'tough' group who decided to take that 90 minutes and visit 7-11 and come back and throw a party every day. Needless to say they decided to break that class up and give each elective teacher five of them. Enter more chaos. On the ultimate day of chaos which involved shaving cream and three calls to the officer, two students decided to go through my purse and steal my phone. They went through my wallet too but alas I am poor and don't have cash to steal. I win?!?

I pressed charges against a 14 year old and he was arrested. Turns out he was a little klepto and already had one arrest and multiple teachers thanked me later because he was always stealing stuff from them. 
So there's that.

Semester Three:

I had the pleasure of two bridges boys in one room and a supervisor they walked all over daily. The two boys spent most days yelling at each other across the room and riling each other so badly that one would almost throw a punch or the other just walked out. I had a kid who fell out of his chair and flipped his chair on himself daily in order to make people laugh. I had a kid who would walk outside to the parking lot behind my room and just pace. And the AC was out for nine weeks, which generally meant the room was about 86 degrees around 7th period, tension was high on all fronts.

Semester Four:

This was probably the best group of 7th period students ever, if only I had known that now, mostly everyone worked, mostly they all stayed seated and I even could get through instruction most days. But I ended up with a student from my first semester in the room and he seemed excited to have me again. Until he realized that I wasn't the same and the room wasn't the same. Then he was bored.

He cursed a lot. Was tardy everyday and tried really hard to get the other students to play along and a few would. So he tried harder. Until he lost it and pushed me and cursed me out. So that's fun.

Semester Five:

This semester. I don't even have words. But it's me so I will try to find some.

I can honestly say I have never had a class full of students who get it less than these students.

 

They don't understand that if they are out of their seats I will give them a consequence. They actually wait to start talking and making noise until I am giving instructions. They don't care if they get game time at the end of the week. They just don't get that negative behavior equals less game time and positive game time equals more game time. It's like some sort of sick twisted game they enjoy playing. 

And it's not just one student, or two...it's ten. 

I miss when I had students that just refused to work, I could coax the toughest student to turn in any assignment and I have. I have kids that pass my class that don't pass a single other class. I have dealt with some very tough students in the past and by no means do these students match the level of intensity.

It's like dealing with drunk people that enjoy mindlessly wondering around the room arguing with you for absolutely no reason.

So all my teacher bloggers, I desperately need some suggestions for how to improve this class so I don't strangle a student in the next six weeks. That's generally frowned upon.

What do you do to turn a tough class around? 

And let me just go ahead and throw this tidbit out there parent contact has resulted in zero help and me getting chewed out a few times.

- The Babbling Box!