Don't you dare do that!! (A post about teaching)

Earlier in the year I would often browse through all the cute teacher blogs out there. I have a list on my blog that I like to look through but the past couple months I haven't wanted to even read them. The cute classrooms, cute lesson plans, and cute ideas are another world to me. I was discouraged because I knew my classroom could never be like that, not the class I have now. There is not time to find the perfect "font" for lessons or incorporate fun art projects. I had 10 sets of markers in the beginning of the year, we have pulled them out to use every so often, now I am missing most. I had a paper tray for blank lined paper but started to notice that the paper ran out quite fast....I have to hold on to my white board markers or those to go "missing." When I have a sub I usually lock up everything. My personal class library will most likely be destroyed by the end of the year (what ever happened to treating your books with love and care?). I try every day to make my teaching engaging and fun. My kids have suddenly decided that fighting is cool, so I am now breaking up fights at least once a week. Rather than focus on adjectives and pronouns, we are reviewing how to stand in line, how to talk with kindness, modeling examples of helping one another. I am often giving students pep talks to encourage them to not give, try their hardest, and act like a scholar. My students need instant gratification...week long or month long class points is too far of a concept. I give daily Scholar of the Day awards to students that set a good example for ANYTHING. They really love it, but of course before I started giving out the awards I had to teach them what they do when they don't receive them. No negative comments, we only say positive things to our classmates. We had to practice this several times because I knew, that if some students were not chosen they would throw their books across the room. So maybe in some fairy tale classroom their are students who work well together in groups and have color coded bulletin boards....but in my class its.... making it through the day with no tears, no punches, no stealing, and of course the clincher that EVERY student should be above grade level for state testing. No pressure on me :)