Ranking the Good

Yesterday I was at the continuation high school. Again. (They were on their fall break for a couple weeks. I kind of missed the place.)

I passed out the work. I took roll. They got to work. And they worked quietly.

It was kind of spooky, actually.

I've subbed for this teacher before. I usually get a period or two of silence. Then I get a period or two where the students won't settle and won't shut up. Not yesterday. I got four periods of silence and one period of near silence (the last period of the day is always a bit off).

In my note for the day, I give each class a "grade" and a "rank". The "grade" has to do with behavior. I rarely give out my top score of 5. A five means they were "silent and on task". (I give out a lot of 4s. Four means they were "talkative, but mostly on task".)

Yesterday I gave out 4 fives (and the last class got a 4.5).

The "rank" is all about saying which was the best class of the day and which was the worst. There are days when all the classes behaved about the same, so I skip ranking the classes that day. A day where every class got a five should be a day where I do away with ranking.

Yesterday? Ranking was easy.

It was strange. While the worst rank wasn't terrible (many days that would be the best behavior I'd get), the best class was obviously better behaved than the others. They all settled and worked, but some classes gave me more attitude before they settled and worked.

It was a very odd day. Good, but odd.