Bonding

At 12:30PM, the rush begins. There is a mad dash from 6th and even some 7th graders to come to my classroom for lunch to play video games, use the computer, and for some, tutoring (although this has to be forced on them...). The other day, I had an entire classroom worth of students up for lunch. The irony is that this is more manageable than a regular class at times! It's a big improvement from last year, as I am able to manage all of these students successfully without any trouble, at a time where everyone is relaxed and having a good time free of responsibility.

If I have a student that wants to come upstairs, and I have his/her class next period and I am giving a test, the rule is that they are not allowed to play video games or use the computer, but they must study. They have a choice to walk away, or stay. Unfortunately, some have immediately walked away, However, some others have chosen to stay. A student wanted to use the computers, and didn't even know what was going to be on the test!

I don't have much time left, so I hope that these values pass on to these students so that next year, they spend their lunch times studying and keep track of their priorities. As much as I played video games as a youngster, my priorities were always intact.

My toughest class has started to request to come upstairs to my room. I have no idea what happened. They've given me such a difficult time in the past, but the past week and a half has gotten better. I hope that this continues. I almost wanted to shed a tear the other day. It feels like we've finally gotten closer. I forgot the Wii U gamepad last week, so I was stuck with only 3 controllers instead of 4. They were able to share with each other without any quarreling, with only those three! They've come such a long way and I'm proud of them.