Turns out that I wasn’t done earlier. What a day.

I dealt with my plagiarist today, which was far easier than I had expected. It turns out that he/she was (allegedly) stuck on the assignment, and rather than turning in a subpar piece, he/she simply Googled a creation myth and modified it ever-so-slightly for the assignment. I provided more explanation in order to help the work get done and made my offer. When the student left the room, he/she thanked me. That satisfied me somewhat; we’ll see how the assignment turns out to see if I really am satisfied ultimately.

If I haven’t mentioned it already, my juniors are difficult to deal with. There are elements in both that make them incredibly trying (like the tendency for groups of friends to take the same section and some serious disparity in gender distribution), and (unfortunately) I haven’t quite learned my lesson about coming down with discipline to kick things into gear. (That may change tomorrow.) They aren’t totally out of control, but instruction for them is problematic.

So I was aghast when, during my more trying section*, my superintendent walked into the classroom.

I tried to use this to my advantage, since I saw him coming through the door before most of the class did, and greeted him, “Hey, Mr. Super.”† There was a noticeable difference in the way the students acted, but that doesn’t mean that there was anything exceptional about their behavior: they just weren’t as bad. The superintendent stayed a few minutes and moved on, but I was totally disarmed. Having the superintendent in the room is just about the easiest way to make me get nervous; I don’t even think I would get nervous if my principal was observing me (which will be happening in early October – can’t wait for that).

I don’t know what to think of the day, but I hope to God that tomorrow is more normal. I can’t take too many more days like today.

*Actually, I don’t know if this is true or not. Both are pretty bad.
†Name changed to protect the innocent: me.