Lost Control

Today is the day that I was waiting for, I finally lost control of one of my classes. It is not as bad as you think but it was enough to get me thinking about where to draw the line with the students. What started as a joke turned into so much more. I would not let the students write their name with my dry erase marker, so at the end of the period I was cleaning up and before the bell rang I put the markers back on the board and was collecting papers. One of the girls in the class, (very outgoing) went and picked up the marker and walked back to me and put a red dot on my arm, I guess to show me that she could use it. OK, ha ha, very funny now give me the marker, she says no and tosses it across the room to another girl, well now I am frustrated, I have lost all control. In the book Teaching with Love and Logic it talks about giving up some of the control but I am pretty sure it did not mean in this way. I finally got the marker back but they said they were going to do the same thing tomorrow. We will see what happens, I am not going to let this continue, they are good kids but I don't want them to think that they run the room.

The secret of many a man's success in the world resides in his insight into the moods of men and his tact in dealing with them.
J.G. Holland