Welcome to bootcamp

That's what I told my kids when they walked into our writing workshop. For the past two days, my department chair and I were downstairs in the basement, holding 3 hour writing workshops. Yesterday was quite possibly one of the most draining days of my short teaching career. While the morning sessions both days got me pumped up and excited, the afternoon sessions were pretty awful.

My 8th period monsters + my department chair's 8th period demons + teacher #3's 8th period, which consists of, for lack of a better word, the rejects from my department chair and me = DISASTER.

All talking, all gossip, all drama. Gotta love teenagers.

The next day was better. It was all my students, but, as usual, it was talk talk talk. While I was talking. So my instructional coach stood up to lecture them. If I were them, I would have hated her.

Dernard, the boy who I so had hope for, that reads at about a 6th grade level and writes at about a 4th grade level, raises his hand. He is sitting by himself in the corner (as usual), acting like an fool (as usual). Instructional coach calls on him.

"Not you, I wanna talk to Ms. Chen."

"Well I guarantee you that she won't be answering your question now, not with that attitude."

Dernard gets pissed off, crumples his paper, sticks it under his desk, and crosses his arms. After helping a few other kids, I finally go over to him.

"Dernard, get to work."
"I ain't doin' work!"
"Why not?"
"Did you hear the way that fat lady talked to me? I ain't doin' this."

I proceed to gently lecture him about respect, keeping in mind his sensitivity. I'm starting to get riled up at his attitude and refusal to work, especially after I felt like I had finally gotten through to this boy after a semester.

I told him a story that another teacher had told me about some woman who had tried to swim across the English channel, but then the fog rolled in and she got scared and the boat pulled her up, then they realized that she was just a mile or so from shore, but she said she got scared (worst run-on sentence ever, I know).

"Are you going to be like that woman and just give up?"
"I said I'm not writing this. So just give me a zero," Dernard replies evenly.

Now I'M pissed off.

"Dernard, we have worked TOO hard and you have made TOO MUCH improvement over these months to just stop now. Your test is NEXT WEEK. You are SO CLOSE, and if you stop practicing now, you're going to be like that woman."
"I don't care! I'm not doing it for her!"
"Then do it for me, ok? Can you do that? No wait, do it for YOURSELF. If you stop right now, you are not only failing me, you are failing YOURSELF because you worked too hard to stop now, and I'm not going to let you. So pick up your paper and get to work. When I get back, I better see one more paragraph."

I stalk off to help the other kids. Lo and behold, when I glance back, Dernard is writing! Angrily, but writing all the same!

Win!

So I think....

Then there's a fire drill. And Dernard refuses to leave. Since we're in the ROTC room, the ROTC teacher, Sergeant D comes out to help. Dernard still refuses, and he and Sergeant D pretty much have it out. We all go outside, and as we come inside, they are still arguing, Dernard is being completely disrespectful, and he cusses at the Sarge.

Great. Job.

So Officer H. comes to take him away. Dernard's parting words.

"I don't care! F*ck this school! I don't care!"

He walks out with Officer H.

If he's suspended, he won't be back until the day of the test. Now that's what I call an emotional day for Ms. Chen.