Don't Add to My Anxiety Monday

Nothing like a really badly behaved classroom to add to anxiety on a Monday. Colleges, revise your student handbook to include the following: there will no, repeat, no whining about classwork and homework if you do not do your homework in the first place. You do not take 30 minutes for the ten minute break and you turn goddamned cell phone off and don't whine about being cut off from the world because you have to turn off your cell phone during class. I'm still learning the ropes as a teacher and haven't grown my balls out enough to yell and throw students out of class, but I can see that day coming. Right now, all I can do is fall back on the "I'm disappointed in you" tactic and garnish it with "this was a really sloppy class" and "you're really hurting your grade if you don't do your work." A few bad apples really did a number today. Luckily, bad class was followed up by well-behaved class that was focused and did their work. Still, Monday mornings are tough, and thinking there will be more Monday mornings like this one doesn't give me happy thoughts. Thank God for tonight: I get to watch Jack Bauer give some horrible sadistic treatment to bad guys threatening our country. 24 has a strangely calming effect on me, despite being a show that involves one nerve-racking world crisis after another. Maybe it's perspective for stress: a bunch of badly behaved teenagers is nothing compared to being faced with corruption, security threats, and death every hour of a day. Or is it?

UPDATE: Here's a follow up to this post.