L'annee nouveau

The new (jewish) year has dawned, the weather is brisk and full of personality, and I'm trying like hell to change my attitude, and my kids'. Last week was bearable, and this week I am blostered by the hope that I can get a few kids switched out of my class, just to "change the dynamic" as my AP would say. I've been making the most headway with a certain type of kid-- the smart, awkward, self-hating kid, the kid who usually cuts calss or takes a failure. Many of them have told me that mine is the only class they bother doing any work at all in, or showing up to, and they seem relaxed in my class. But then there are the mingangstas and their paper-ball wars who are making my life, and the life of many of my bright students, miserable. I just don't know how to deal with them. I had a revelation on Friday that I simply shouldn't have to deal with eight boys misbehaving at once, and i spoke to my AP about it and he said Monday was the day I could switch 'em up. So it shall be! And now I surrender myself to gradekeeper, the electronic program that's SUPPOSED to make my life easier, and the endless list of resolutions I always make during periods of stress/unhappiness:

read for pleasure
work out
take baths
light candles
spend more time with family and friends
BLOG (or write in a journal)
remember how lucky i really am

and knowing full well that all these things do not a happy life make... but what can one do but try?