From Worst to First

This is my Period 7, Junior English class. Well, some of them. By the time we took the picture, several had departed for either softball, baseball, or track games or meets.

This period has been my Achilles heel this year, no question. They have been, at times, immature, unruly, disrespectful, and any other tough adjective one could add.

Today, we may have made a turn.

It is a very long story why this change. Maybe at some point I can lay out the back story, but for now it's all good.

Yesterday, as they all told stories based around their spring break experience, I sensed something different from them all, a respect, a deep respect, for the storyteller. There was a calm, a quiet, a civility, that had been lacking before. The room felt...home.

It's far more than I can express in the available writing space here, but I may be on the cusp of the greatest turn around I have ever witnessed in a class. After I had a long heart-to-heart with them, I felt I had won them over.

The baseball team was dismissed early for their game today, and when three players got up to leave, they all came up to shake my hand. Dylan, the last to leave and a real interesting story himself, looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and said, "Thanks for being here, Pops."

Keep the pay check...I have my reward.