A Hard Pill to Swallow

Have you every had that moment where you felt so defeated and disrespected that you could literally walk out of the schoolhouse and never look back?!? Today was one of those days. A day where a pill, called Pride, the size of your fist had to be choked down in the middle of your classroom. I was with my small group, in the meat of interpreting remainders, when I heard surfing music blaring from a Chromebook. Naturally, I stopped what I was doing and investigated this noise, I knew was NOT coming from DreamBox, or TenMarks, or Google Classroom. To my surprise, I see one of my students on a site that was NOT 'Mrs. Ritter approved.' This sparked the question in me, 'Who else is misusing their time in my class?' When given the opportunity to be honest, or reap the fruits of a referral, EVERY STUDENT came forward claiming to have misused their device, at least once this school year. It shouldn't surprise you that the waterworks started (on my part) and I had to leave the room. Yes, I am pregnant, but I am pretty sure that incident would have made me cry regardless. I have never felt like such a failure! How had I made it TWO SIX WEEKS and not realized what was happening under my nose. I consider myself to be a pretty attentive educator, and I understand that I can't be everywhere in the room all of the time, but seriously, ALL 44 OF THEM?!!? Surely I should be expecting a pink slip tomorrow, right?!

So, I did the only thing I could think to do....after the loooong lecture of course. I had each student copy down our district Device Pledge, that they signed at the beginning of the year, word-for-word. They were instructed to take it home and have it signed. So sure, I swallowed a Pride-pill the size of a small planet today, and I may have cried (a little) in front of my kids, but the thing that hurt the worst was removing the technology from the classroom. I live for those Chromebooks. My teaching style is very effective with those Chromebooks, but the only way to let them FEEL the consequence of dishonesty was to take them away. So, for the next week, the lives in Room 32 will feel a little more archaic than they usually do.

I am hopeful this experience will bring us closer together as a learning community. I am hopeful that we will learn what it means to be respectful. I am hopeful we will learn to be good citizens. I am hopeful we will become accountable to ourselves and our learning. I am most hopeful that these kids will understand how much I care about them, and how they DESERVE the EDUCATION I am trying so hard to give them. Be rooting for us. We are capable of great things..... and say a little prayer for me...my eye is already twitching just thinking about the lack of technology that is in this room.