in the bag?

Today I was armed with some new ideas for my lesson: I would give some space for student voices by letting them uncover the meanings of vocabulary words through context clues rather than just telling them myself. We would share our ideas and agree on a class definition. Cool, right? Also, I prepared a mystery bag for each class as a way to introduce our new stories. The kids would pull out items from the bags and make predictions, connections, etc. Cool, right?

I felt good about the efforts I had made to mix it up. My planning was strong; every minute was full. 

And the day still didn't go well. 3 kids in 303 would not stop talking. I tried to send them to the accommodation room. They refused. So I called for security. He didn't come. So the kids stayed in my room talking. Tonight I should be thinking through solutions for next time. "What could I have done to redirect Savaughn?" "What consequences will Maya take seriously?" Grr... I confess my unwillingness. This resiliency bit is exhausting.