I've spent the last few days dealing with class lists that have little basis in reality, kids without computer accounts and a lab that wasn't working. Today I finally reserved the beautiful lab belonging to the Automotive and Manufacturing Technology areas today so I could at least get everyone on the Internet. (Several students pointed out that this lab had way better machines than our Computer Technology lab, and I told them that fact was not lost on me). Fortunately, our IT guys rewired my lab while we were down the hall in the spiffier one.
My mentor poked her head in my classroom after school to ask how my kids were, and I had to say "great". They really are great. Some of them need a little inspiration and I'm not yet sure how to give them some, but I'm working on it. I told them I didn't expect anything out of them that they wouldn't expect out of me, and so far I'd say that, after a little testing by a couple of the second-year students, today they're all treating me with respect. Cool!
If anyone asks me how I did it, I'll have to tell them the truth. Yeah, I did ask the kids to please not set anything on fire. I think it was the delivery and not what I actually said that was important, though. :-)
I do trust these kids. They've given me no reason not to. While they were on break today I went over to my lab to see how the rewiring was going and ran into the assistant principal, who berated me for leaving my class unattended. For a few seconds I thought, "am I totally naive? I think they'll be fine..." Went back to the class. Fine. Doing exactly what they were doing when I left.
So, classroom-management-wise, I seem to be doing OK. Whew.