Dreams invade my life

Today is our last day before Spring Break. WOO!!!

Of course, last night I dreamt about students all night long, and not in a good way. I’ve been having issues this year, keeping one of my classes focused. They aren’t bad kids, but they just feel their lives are much more important than the subject I am teaching (a core area). For example, while some students were finishing an assessment yesterday, I had one student stop, catch his friend’s eye, and WAVE at him.

“HI FRIEND!” he says in a very “outside” voice.

When I tell him that isn’t appropriate, the response is “What? I was saying hi to my friend!”

This is a sixth grader.

So this week I created “Think Sheets” for them, since I am assuming this behavior is going to get worse as the end of the year nears. This has been a struggle all year. I only see them for about an hour a day, and they are in their last year of elementary school  (Our school is K-6), and this is the time when some of them see their friends, since they come from different classes.

Back to my dream. I dreamt I had about seven of the kids in my class, and they were doing an assignment with a sub (I have a half-day sub today). I come back, and try to finish the assignment. As I’m asking them questions, it becomes clear they have been goofing off and did not even do the work (It was an activity on area of triangles).

I become mad. I start yelling at the kids (which I don’t do but honestly, this year I have been close). I start yelling at them about how important the subject is and that they can’t just write down whatever and think it’s ok.

And then a student(a different one from the story above), who I’ve had for years, makes jokes. He’s making jokes, and I’m mad so I send him out of the room to sit in the hall until I can get the principal. And I tell him, if you see the principal, tell her why you’re in the hall.” And he shrugs and says, “OK”. (which does not help).

After the class leaves, I take him to the principal’s office. I ask him if he has seen his recent aptitude test scores (Very high. Very, very high. This is based on real tests we just completed). He says, “I think so. I don’t know” and shrugs again. So then, I intend to have this discussion that we know how high he is now, and that he needs to begin demonstrating that ability through his work (he is a very sloppy, minimum-effort worker).

But I don’t have time to start this big, inspirational talk.

I wake up. I wake up cranky because I spent my sleeping hours worrying about students again. I guess I’ll just try to remember this is the last day before break. Breathe deeply….pray for no school dreams over break.