Yesterday was an awful day.  I hope there are very few days like that throughout this year, but I fear they may be plentiful.

Instead of focusing on yesterday, I'm not even going to talk about it.  Instead, I'm moving on, and talking about today's Vials of Life lab in 7th grade.  There were several behavior types I noticed today in the lab:

1) Fully participated - There were a good number of kids in each class (probably 35%) who really got into the lab, and were actively interested in examining what was happening in each vial.  They followed the directions, and took the activity seriously enough to be able to correlate the activity to the instruction from Mon and Tue.

2) Vicariously participated - The biggest part of the class in both periods (roughly 50%) participated reluctantly.  They did the work, but slowly.  The did not follow directions well, but eventually got their vials correct.  Their observations were poorly written or not done. etc  This group is at risk... they may fall behind, or they may pull it together.  I think this is the sweet spot for positive change and improvement.

3) Non-participants - There was a smaller number of kids in each class who simply refused to participate at all.  A couple were moved to other rooms, and/or moved to the focus desk.  It is hard for me to understand how a student is more interested in aggressive non-participation than to just get involved.  I mean, wtf?  There is no escape from the school environment - you might as well at least participate.  These students are already in trouble.  They have either failed in other classes, or are likely to fail this year.  What can I do to try and change this?  How can I get them engaged?

All in all, the lab went well, and today is off to a much better start than yesterday.