It's morning of the third day of school.  Yesterday was interesting.  A mixture of success and challenge that is likely to be representative of this year.

The challenge presented itself in the morning.  I was escorting the students to their specialty class, when one of the students, KR, told me she didn't know where she had to go because she didn't have a schedule.  I told her stick with me, and we'll head over to the office to get it as soon as I got everyone to the right place. She was unhappy she had to wait, but I didn't see any other option so that's what we did.  After dropping everyone in specialty, I took KR to the office, and unsurprisingly the office was packed with people needing something from the one person in there.  (The office here is incredibly inefficient) Ms. Brazil told us it was really busy and we would have to wait.  No surprise to me, but KR wasn't having it.  She stormed out of the office in a huff, and would not return, no matter how nicely or firmly I asked her to.  Multiple teachers tried to assist with no success.  Finally, exasperated, and unable to come up with a better solution, I left her in the hallway, and repiorted the incident to Yvonne Vest - 7th grade administrator.  The three of us met later, and KR was just as bratty to Yvonne as she was to me.

Takeaways:  It's not personal.  KR doesn't know me, and hasn't even given me a chance.  Each day needs to be a fresh start.  KR needs someone to connect with her.  IDK if that will be me, but I have to try.

The success came in period 6.  It was another sweltering day, with temps above 90 and high humidity.  It was the edn of the day, I had long ago sweat through all my clothes, which were damp and uncomfortable, and the kids were all tired and over it.  As we tried to go into the incredibly uninteresting topic of the first DMC common expectation, it became clear that the kids were uninterested, nonparticipative, and otherwise unengaged.  As we asked the kids to get involved, it became increasingly apparent that an intervention was required.  I was inspired to go into coaching mode, and talked to the kids about why the DMC expectations mattered.  I put it in context of growing into strong young men and women, and becoming successful in their careers.  I went really into coach-mode, that rhythmic, building pace of my motivational speeches among my crew, and IT WORKED!  Kids were commenting in agreement, cheering, and engaged in the class for the remainder of the day.  Maybe I can do this, after all!

Takeaways: It is worth taking the time to get kids excited and believing in themselves to build engagement when needed.

Also, I seriously can't wait for the heat to break.