Hurray! Got Barbara out of the cage! Walked for 30 min today! Stayed within my WeightWatchers Points! (I didn't realize what a good day I had.)

I had a rough day. I don't really know....yes, I do know why. My first two classes had no energy, so I had nothing to get me going (other than a cup of coffee I had made 2 hours before). Third period was yacking away, so I had to yell at them. Fifth period was also chatty. I had to pull out the "listening coyote" to get their attention. ("Listening Coyote" is an attention getter I got from an elementary school during my outdoor ed experience. You join your ring, thumb, and middle fingers together to make the closed mouth of the coyote. Your pinky and pointer fingers are the attentive ears pointing forward. It's very cute...too cute for junior high, but it got them to focus on me.)Period 6 was pretty good compared to all this; my "special" student was absent today, so it went pretty well. Both 5th and 6th had presentations today- the first in my class. They were supposed to present a summary of the part of the chapter I assigned them. They were OK with the group work and making the puzzle and even with the thought of standing in front of each other to talk. What threw them was the fact that I had them take notes on what they were saying. Next time, I'll just let them listen. I just don't trust them to be paying attention. Maybe I need to have more faith in my students. Should I, or am I crazy??