May 1, 2010

One gone


I have some difficult children in my class who require more time and energy than I have.  Two especially compete to be my top tier kids and the top tier of the school kids.  One of these kids transferred into my classroom midyear and while my class was not perfectly run, it was managed with ocaisional outbursts by the other defiant one.  However, once the new student entered the dynamics changed and the  room seemd to explode.  I often wondered if I would make it to the end of the year.  If retirement were closer, I would have considered it. 

So, selfishly I was glad and relieved when I found out that the one student would be transferring out of my classroom before the end of the year. It is not a good move for the student-- three schools in one year--   but for my sanity , it is a wonderful thing.  For the rest of my students, it is a good thing.

The student has been gone now for two weeks and there is a noticeable difference in the class. It is not a peaceful class by any measure-- I am having to get it back to a place close to where it was before. But there is a tension or energy gone.  The defiant student that remains is wound tighter than a top and cannot make it a full day without having some sort of problem or disaster, other students are trying to fill in the void of the one who left, but the air is calmer and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I think I just might make it to the end of this year.

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