A Little Bit Vindicated

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might remember me posting about a small panic attack I had in late January, after one of my bosses implied that she is wondering about my classroom management. She's never watched me teach.

The class in question was, of course, the infamous 6B, a group of 24 7th and 8th graders. For the most part, they're good kids. But a few of them are needy, and by sheer luck of the draw, they all ended up together. Even the PE teacher has his moments with them (and the boys mostly love PE).

In January, we were joined by Angel (not his real name), a 12-year-old with a Mickey Mouse voice (it doesn't even crack--it's nowhere NEAR changing), short stature, chubby physique and glasses. While he's an obvious target for Nerd Patrol, I think his life at our school might have been allright if he wasn't such a complete and total pain in the ass.

Angel has all the classic signs of Little Man Complex: he picks fights with bigger kids, poking constantly at them with words and physical actions. He hasn't gotten the shit beat out of him--yet--but we're all just waiting for the day, because that may be the only thing that teaches him to keep his big mouth shut. He spent his first day in my class making farting noises and has, since then, made himself unwelcome with his peers in every possible way.

After getting so little support from the admin in question a few months ago, I figured the problem was my own, and maybe I'd get lucky and he'd move. I spoke to the counselor about him. She called him an onion: "Every time you peel one issue off, there's another one underneath it, waiting."

I also call him an onion, because he makes me want to cry.

Monday, at my wits' end, I went to our counselor again for advice. She called Migrant Ed, who work with him, and set up a meeting with his parents for Tuesday after school. So yesterday, we all sat down (along with the PE teacher and Angel's reading teacher) with Mom and Dad, and a translator from Migrant Ed. And we aired a laundry list of problems.

Suddenly, I could see that it really isn't just me--he's a problem wherever he goes, and this is NOT on my classroom management.

Today, 6B came to my room. I sent five boys out (the counselor, who is my new favorite person had offered to take them for some babysitting), including Angel. As it turns out, the administrator who criticized me for sending kids out of class in January got to deal with Angel herself today, and she was not a happy camper.

Apparently, as happens in the classroom, Angel would not shut up--he simply whined and tried to talk his way out of everything. The admin, frustrated, called the counselor and said, "It's like talking to a WALL! A wall that won't SHUT UP!!"

When told this, I smiled. Because if Angel isn't afraid of HER, she's certainly got to see that I am not exaggerating when I say he's a nightmare in the classroom. I am no longer afraid to write this kid up.