There was an accident in what’s emerging as my worst class today and that gave one of my worst students a chance to be bad.

The funny part is, the sleeper in that class stayed awake. (More on that in a minute.)

Early on in the class (which happens to be first period) I noticed a puddle on the floor. That puddle led to a bag which happened to belong to a bad student who used the opportunity to check his bag and clean up the mess as a chance to disrupt. He laid a chair down and used the back as a seat so that he didn’t have to sit on the floor. He made a couple trips to the restroom to rinse out the towel he was using to sop up the mess. He talked with the guy in his usual desk. (Note: I always move them to different chairs.)

I proceeded with the class without him and only lost a couple students to his distraction. He eventually got bored, finished and went back to his seat where he acted bored and annoyed at any requests that he actually speak/do work.

As for the sleeper, he surprised me by being a relatively decent student today. He not only didn’t try to sleep, but he actually did work and didn’t try to disrupt the class. Usually when sleepers are forced to stay awake they respond by being belligerent and doing nothing and doing to their best to make sure other students in the class do nothing.

The rest of the day went well, which is unusual for the day before a three day holiday. I had a few rowdy students and realized my planned schedule wasn’t going to work out exactly right (at least in one class).

Then it was home to enjoy doing very little for a few days.