Voices Carry

Math support. It's an extra math class for students who need extra help in math. Because they need extra help in math, these classes tend to be filled with students who hate math. And act out. And are freshmen...

Yeah, it was a bad, bad period.

I emailed the teacher and his co-teacher that evening...

(The teacher has a co-teacher for all but this period. But these students are also in with the co-teacher in another period, so she knows them. I figured she wanted feedback, too, so I included her in the email.)

It was a two-day assignment.

The worst offenders were Lawrence and Jose.

I ran into the co-teacher the next day. She informed me that she had made her displeasure known (she had "ripped them a new one"), and three students, including Larry and Jose, were going to spend the period with her (in the learning center).

Fine by me.

When they arrived to class, I wondered. The co-teacher called me to tell me to send the miscreants to her. So, I told them they had to go. They put up a protest, for a moment. Then they happily agreed.

I walked away, but I heard Jose say to Larry, "We'll take our time getting over there. We'll get there with two minutes left in the period..."

A moment later they were gone.

The room was loud, but I still easily heard Jose. And now I knew what my next step needed to be. I called the co-teacher and told her (1) the students had just left class, and (2) what Jose had said.

"Well, then, I should come out to meet them," the co-teacher said.

Surprisingly, the class settled after that. They still weren't on task, but they weren't nearly as crazy as they had been the day prior. Which just goes to show how getting rid of a couple bad players helps control a classroom.

But then, suddenly the students in class were at the door, opening it, looking out...

I got over there and told the students to sit down. I poked my head out to see what the commotion was about. Two security personnel (with their golf carts) and the co-teacher were having a discussion with the kiddos who should have already been at the other room.

It looked to me like the kiddos left the room and were planning on hanging out around the "porch" of the classroom. Because they were seated on the ledge. And I got a definite "hanging out" vibe.

I closed the door and turned back to the kiddos in the room. They had work to do.

No one ventured near the door again. One of the security guys came in and wandered the classroom. (The co-teacher had told me earlier that she had asked them to check on us during class time due to the craziness of the prior day.) He left. And things went back to the mild chaos that I expected of them.

I have no idea what happened to Larry and Jose. I'm sure it was a reasonable consequence for their actions.

I swear, teenagers don't get that their voices carry. They talk amongst themselves as if the adults can't hear them. Silly boys.