I was getting into "mean Mr. E" mode to begin discussing my classroom management, but I then read this and became so excited at the possibilities that I turned into "crazy, giddy Mr. E" instead. To wit: Schilling claims he is retiring after this year and the Sox need another stud to back up Beckett. Daisuke Matsuzaka could be that man. (As an aside: Beckett will be in the running for the AL Cy Young at the end of the 2007 season. You heard it here first)

Anyway, back to the business at hand. I believe that my classroom management has gotten worse over the past couple of weeks. It is almost as if the students have decided that they should give me another test, just to see if I would actually stick with my discipline plan. Really? Do we have to do this again?

What is especially disturbing is the fact that I have experienced the most discipline problems in classes that were previously calm and completely organized. A student who was poorly behaved during the first two weeks of school, and then who turned around, decided to once again challenge me this week and received to detentions.

Two weeks ago, the school put a new discipline policy into action, one that changed not really was to be punished, but rather howthe school would punish those indiscretions. This made it difficult to enforce every rule in one class for two weeks, but I like to think that I did the best I could. I resolved to always enforce my consequences in my fifth and sixth periods. Doing such in 5th period was relatively easy; I think they are my favorite class. 5th period always completes require assignments, hardly ever actus out, and when a student in that class does get in trouble, it is always for something that is somewhat funny, not something that was done with the intent of hurting either me or a classmate. 6th period was a little more difficult; they remain, despite improvements, my most difficult class (where both discipline and academics are concerned). There are a few success stories in this class; specificallyl, one girl who never paid attention has come around in the past three weeks and seems to actually like me now (she even started shaking my hand when she enters my room, somthing she had always refused to do before this turnaround). However, the other students - 5 or 6 of them in particular - are not doing so well. They fail to listen to me, fail to complete thier homework, and show me very little respect. It was my hope that the new school discipline policy would help me deal with these students. Unfortunately, I am not sure it has fulfilled this hope.

When they originally heard about the new discipline policy (on a Friday), my students openly debated revolt. The terms "alternative school," "fascism," and "prison system" were thrown around liberally by the students of RHS. "I'm totally transferring," said at least one young girl. On Monday, however, such brash comments had subsided. I believe that my classroom management has been somewhat underminded, rather than helped, by the new, mandatory discipline plan. Students see the new plan, and immediately think, "how can I test this? What are the limits?" I hope, though I am not sure, that I have responded to these challenges with consistency and fairness.