She came into the office screaming in fury, fresh out of a furniture-flipping fit she’d thrown after being marked tardy to class. She sat in my office and ranted about all the injustices of the world, making her story bigger and bigger as she talked. She went on and on and on…while I stared at…

A parent was near tears on the phone with me today, explaining why she’d stood me up for our meeting this morning. Her son was on trial this afternoon, facing serious sentencing, and her good friend was just hospitalized. Today was just not a good day.   I heard her to the end and then…

I never looked to my future and said, “Man, I hope one day I’m in charge of resolving all middle school drama.” I’d actually bet a lot of money that no one has ever said that – why would you? It’s endless and impossible and it’s middle school drama. But now, here I am, in charge…

I usually wait to eat lunch until after student lunch is over and I’m back in my office. It’s almost always the same type of delicious sandwich that I’ve developed over my last few years of teaching, although it varies slightly as I get inspired by different items in the supermarket.   I know a…

There was no food fight today. Instead, there was a pretty impressive show of force from the adults. Almost all of our teachers came to lunch, acting casual while strategically chatting with kids all over the cafeteria. Parents I called yesterday showed up to babysit their children and their friends. The security officer was roaming and…

The kids are planning a food fight. I am terrified.   The good news: we learned about it in time. A kid reported it to a teacher, who bothered a whole bunch of kids to get names and then gave all those names to me. I got each of those kids in my office, put…

Blogging my teaching resolutions at the start of 2012 was surprisingly effective. I worked hard at pretty much all of them for the rest of the year, and I felt like it really paid off. (The notable exception was transferring my teaching license, which I never got far with. Instead, I’ve developed the nasty habit…

It was the last day before Winter Break, and I was proctoring detention after school. As you can imagine, the kids were not thrilled to be there. They were grouchy, slow to follow directions, and trying to test my resolve to keep them without crossing the line and getting in more trouble. Needless to say,…

A kid climbed out my office window today and ran away from school.   I wish I could tell you that caused me to do more than sigh and make a phone call, but it’s been one of those weeks. Not much surprises me lately.    

A sixth grader has gotten in trouble for horseplay so many times that he finally landed himself in my office. We went through the whole standard process and then started planning for how to do better from here on. We talked awhile and then I said, “Where’s a good place to keep your hands while…