Sad Day

It was a normal day in school, or as normal as normal goes.  We did have a fire drill today (apparently teachers aren't told when it will happen so it will be an actual drill).  The weird part of today was that I felt sad after teaching the 8th graders.  It wasn't like a crying sad or a painful sad... it was more of a disappointed sad and an I-expect-more-from-you sad. 

So many of the 8th graders are bright students with tons of potential, but they just don't care!  They slack off and mouth off to the teachers.  Now, I realize that it's the end of the school year and everyone is getting sick of school, but that doesn't give them license to goof off and mess around during class. 

However, there was a bright spot in my day.  There is one 8th grader who has a history of not caring about school; all the paras are counting down the days until he turns 16 and can drop out.  But I know he's smarter than he acts.  Today he was the only one in his group on-task and actually moving the lab activity forward.  He was the first one to write down the answers and helped switch the materials around for the different steps.  I was so proud of him!  I really hope he sticks it out and doesn't drop out.