February update

I'm completely shocked by two things that I've noticed recently: 1) the discrepancy in maturity level between my eleventh graders and my twelfth grades, and 2) the lack of effect that any form of consequence has on some students. Today was a bad day with two of my classes (both of which consist of 11th graders). I had to deal with problems that I should not be dealing with at this stage. Stealing people's shoes, constantly wandering around, laughing at infantile jokes -- this isn't the behavior you would expect from 16 and 17 year olds. On the other hand, the students I have just a year older don't give me any of these problems. Sure, there are sleepers, talkers, and complainers, but I'm not having to hold their hands as we walk down the hall.
I held detention day and one student showed up. This is the second week in a row where at least 2 people have skipped. I write them up, they get ISS, they come back to my class, and it's the same behavior. Now this is not all students. A well-placed detention, phone call home, or writing assignment can work wonders some times. But there are the few where nothing seems to work. Even failing. The best I can hope for is to bore them to sleep or hope they're absent. I've also found myself almost waiting for a particular student to mess up so I can nail him/her, which is completely unfair to those few. But it's so hard to erase from memory what has happened every other day for the past 6 months. Ahh... looking forward to 2 1/2 days without students. Hopefully I can get some work done.