Rule #1

I have some rules in my class: Be Kind, Do Your Own Work, Speak When Appropriate, but #1 on my list of rules is Remain Seated. Today someone forgot that rule, it wasn't me. I've got two classes right now with 28 students, most of whom transferred in for the first time last Monday. This is our 4th week of school and they now have a 100-minute class. They've had a hard time adjusting to a change and I've had a hard time getting them to follow the rules.

After taking our break in my last class, I'd begun teaching again when there was a knock at the door. I opened it for one of my students (we'll call him A) who was slow coming back. All of a sudden I see in periphery one of my other students (we'll call him C) running to the door and shouting "What it is?". That was my sign that something bad was happening. A little surprised, I caught C and pushed him back, shut the door on A, then realized I was still inside the room. C apparently remembered the door opens from the inside, because he came back with the same ready-to-fight attitude. One of us opened the door, I pushed him back again, stepped out the door and shut it on him. C opened it one more time, I put my foot in front of the door and he threw himself at the door 2 or 3 times before he apparently calmed down. In the midst of it all I had A find an administrator, who then took them both. I walked back into my classroom and with as bored a look as I could muster I started talking about changing decimals to percents.

Things like this wouldn't happen if folks would just stay in their seats. That's all I'm saying.