Eighth graders have split personalities

Seriously. It's one of the things I haven't had to deal with before. Fifth graders tend to either love you or hate you. They don't flip back and forth every day. Or every minute. 8th graders are much more fickle creatures. Of course there are some that love you, some that hate you, some that are indifferent. But I've noticed that things are much more definitive with this age group. One of my more difficult children was talking to me about how she wanted me to come watch her run track one minute, and then I had to send her out of the room for being disruptive, literally about two minutes later. And then she came back and was fine again. My difficult class was good and mostly on task today. And another class was making me nuts.

This has been an interesting week in that the rest of my department seems to be having a melt-down. Last week was my week to be upset, although I will say that was really just the one day. This week, there are people in my department so upset about student behavior that they are talking about quitting. I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems bad.

I don't by any means have junior high behavior figured out. I know it works a little differently than with the 5th graders I've been teaching. I hope that if I stick around, it will get easier. I know the one thing I have to learn this year is not to take it personally.

The one good thing I'm learning this week is that it's not just me. I'm not struggling just because I'm new. Everyone seems to be having a hard time.