Seat Change

OK, it wasn't so major. Well, it was, really, but it didn't have a major effect on my day.
The Co and I made a massive seat change. Every single girl got her seat moved. Most of them turned out pretty ok, some of them still need adjustments. But that's ok. It's one of the advantages of being a teacher. I get to do whatever I want with the 32 in my control. (Evil Laugh...)
We put B.E.D. in the front of the classroom, right in front of the teacher's desk. I liked her there. I kept an eye on her all day, and she even gave me some beautiful smiles! I guess sitting in the front put her in a place where she felt more involved in the class, and although she didn't raise her hand once, she did seem to be following along.
R.R. was absent, and that was a relief because I had forgotten to prepare her special sheets for her.
R.H. was put into the front as well, and it was a little disastrous. She tends to take over the class, because she's constantly calling out, and speaking out of turn, but being put in the front made her worse. Here she feels like she owns the place because she's sitting in such close proximity to the teacher.
I got a little nervous, but I started ignoring her every time she called out. I should've done it from the first day of school. It worked so well. She got so insulted that I didn't even turn around to look at her when she said something, that she got quiet very quickly. I might actually get somewhere with her.
C.K. was also put in the front, but on the opposite end of the room as R.H. I needed to keep an eye on her too.
G.S. took another one of the front seats in 7a, she's one kid I cannot take my eyes off if I want the other girls to be safe.
Seventh grade is full of little monsters. I wish there were a system to put all 32 of my kids in the front. Every single 12 year old needs to be watched closely.
Anyway, we were in the middle of discussing the story, "The Countess and the Impossible," a nice story about a seemingly strict, proper lady, who taught a Utah farmboy an important lesson in life. At the beginning of the story, the boy sees the countess as a strict disciplinarian, but it ends off where they're strolling around her garden together.
I brought this point up in front of the class, and asked them if they thought the countess seemed a little nicer at the end of the story then at the beginning. So the girls had an animated discussion on this, and basically, we came up with the conclusion that a walk around the garden is something you take with a person you're close and comfortable with, not someone like your school principal.
Well, F.G. raised her hand and said,"Well I have no problem walking in the garden with our principal." I think I almost fainted.
The class didn't all agree with her, but just the fact that F.G. wasn't shy to say that in class, just goes to show that something is very wrong in this school. There is no reason why the students should feel comfortable enough to walk around gardens with the principal, when the teachers live in mortal fear of her.
Help.
Later, we were doing history in 7a, when surprise, surprise, the principal walked in to observe me.
This must've been the third or fourth time she came in to my class this year, more than any of the other teachers, and I almost exploded.
She sat in on my lesson for about 20 minutes, until the bell rang at 4:15, and I didn't wait until she came over to speak to me. I ran for safety and made it to the teacher's room as fast as I could.
I don't need more compliments, I don't need more work, and I definitely don't need it from her. Not today anyway.
I stayed a while to talk to the other teachers and we all somehow managed to have a bad day. They all unanimously agreed that having the principal in for 20 minutes definitely made my day the worst day of all of theirs.
It was kind of fun sitting and kvetching with all those scary people called teachers. But the truth is, we're all just regular people with regular jobs, who manage to have bad days, just like everyone else put there.