Seating Change, Gym, and Other Headaches

The first thing I had to take care of as soon as I walked into class, was a seating change. Usually, my co and I will wait until after class to put one up so that we don't have to deal with complaints, but this was an emergency. The 7b class was so unbearable, that we had to sit down Thursday night to make up a new chart.
I gave them a speech the first thing in the morning, even before davening. I told them that of course, there would be no complaints until after Pesach, and that the seats were not up to them, it was something that both teachers had come up with. I made sure they understood that the next seating change for a girl would be for her to spend a day in the 5th grade.
I didn't really have the permission to say that I would punish someone in a another grade., I had to ask the principal first.
I caught hold of her in the hallways while my class was still davening. I told her that I had made a seating change because some girls were acting out.
She immediately accused me of not having a handle on things. "Why didn't you come to me when you were having the problem? Why do you only wait until you're at the end of your rope?"
I was surprised and said, "I've been speaking to you about these girls since September! I'm not at the 'end of my rope' but a seating change was due anyway, so we did it now instead of later, and we're hoping that it'll help the situation here."
She kept going for a while, and then I asked her permission to punish girls in other classes. She didn't like the idea. She has two methods that she sticks to. Either she takes the girl into her office and psychologizes her, or she has the girls move her desk all the way to the blackboard and isolate her from the rest of the class.
I was more than just familiar with the first method, and I hated to shatter her beliefs, but they did not do a thing. The girls would always come back into class laughing, and they were misbehaving again within a matter of minutes.
As for the second of her strategies, I was disgusted. In a school where they catered so much to students how could they even think of doing something that could literally shatter a girl? Going into another class is embarrassing, but to be punished in the front of all your friends? That's terrible for a child's emotional well-being!
I insisted on my form of punishment, even though she kept saying it wouldn't be that effective, and eventually I got the permission. That If I should have to punish any student, I could send her to the 5th grade next door.
I liked the new seating plan a lot. We really managed to isolate the girls we needed to. I took L.K. away from the wall so that she'd be forced to sit straight. T.K., to her horror, was put in the front.
T.K. has been making a big show of sulking during my classes. My co says that she's a doll by her. I'm pretending I don't care. I can't run after her every time she needs attention. I also think that by ignoring her "kvetchyness" it drives her even more nuts. LOL
R.H. is all the way in the back, and G.S. as well. It's hard to keep my fingers crossed while I'm typing, but I'm hoping for it to work out.
It worked nicely in school today, but that could just be because they were getting used to their surroundings. My co said that after recess they were a bit more hyper.
My lesson went so smoothly, I was pleasantly surprised. It hasn't been so easy to deal with this class in a long time.
After recess both classes had gym. I kept busy taking care of newspaper things, but then my co and I joined the game. I gave a plus one to C.O. for getting my co out, and then another plus to C.C.K. for getting me out. It was fun to play with them.
The second class went by ok, even though by that time I was starving. I hadn't had breakfast and by that time I thought I was going to eat some of my students.
I ran to the teacher's room, but they had no food, so I drank water and went to the principal to approve the newspaper writings.
She had something to say about everything. When I say "something to say" I think it's self understood that she didn't always have good things to say.
I got out of there, ran home, and spent the entire afternoon typing and formatting the paper. By the entire afternoon, I mean from 1-5:30 pm. I didn't even get up from my chair in the middle.
At 5:30 I had a phone conversation with my co for about half an hour, and then I continued typing until 7.
Besides for having no life, I also have no ink left in my printer. I replaced the cartridge last Tuesday. I'm not getting paid for this job, the least they could do is compensate me for my ink. These things cost about $30 a cartridge!
Back to my co, she told me that the girls in 7b stayed after school to talk to her about how she and I treated their class. Now I was added to their list of class haters. Seventh grade minds... My co promised to talk with me about it. So we did. But I don't really believe that these girls would recognize that we liked them if we waved it in front of their noses. I can't knock myself out trying to please everyone.
I'm far from laid back about this issue, but to kill myself trying to please 16 seventh graders when I am already giving up shopping in Manhattan to type their paper...Please. When my husband heard that I was giving up buying new shoes for the paper he was fuming. I would document this even if I weren't doing a blog, my husband would rather go shopping for shoes in Macy's with me than watch me get carpal tunnel syndrome typing. Awwww.
I thought my school day was over when I left the house to go to a wedding, but when I got back, there was a message on my machine from the principal. She wanted me to call the reading specialist in school so that she could teach me techniques that I would be able to use with S.G.L. I am miserable.
I called my co, but she hadn't gotten a call. This was a special form of torture meant just for me.
So in addition to making Pesach, typing the newspaper, teaching, my nephew's wedding, and just plain dealing with school, I also have to do reading lessons.
Help.