Just so everyone knows, I will NEVER be a full time middle school teacher. Totally rowdy/loud/horsing around. I don't get why all the classrooms had inflatable balls in them- it's like asking for trouble!

So I was in charge of four classes by myself and "assisted" in four other classes (i.e. sat in the back doing nothing). Three of "my" four classes were all eighth grade social studies, where they watched a film about the civil rights movement. The first group was awful. Maybe two of them were watching the film while the rest were socializing and goofing off, not to mention asking to go to the bathroom every five minutes. I did my best to take away the obvious distractions (inflatable balls, sticks they were hitting each other with, etc), but there was really no way to get them to sit down and shut up. I at least stopped the film every ten minutes to quiz them about what was happening, and at least a couple students contributed, so that should have at least informed the goof-offs of the main points they had missed. The second group was about 50-50 good and bad students, and the third was really well behaved (yay!). The fourth class I had was sixth grade social studies, and while they were pretty hyper as well, one of their responsibilities was to clean up all the room's art supplies and they did a really impressive job. After that some of them worked like they were supposed to, some socialized, but I guess they just have to finish the rest as homework.

I have another middle school assignment tomorrow (different school)...here's hoping that this school is better at keeping their students in line.