Bad Seeds?

OK, so 8th graders are getting better, and left the field open for the 7th graders to fill in in their theoretical absence.

An example, on Thursday last week, I tried to do a hands-on "Food Web" activity with a ball of string and animal and plant cards. After a bit of a struggle the activity sort of worked. The bad part came at the end when some brilliant 7th grader announced, "Hey, let's all jump in and get tangled up!!" So all of a sudden, there were 17 arguing/shouting voices (16 kids' and one of mine), 32 arms moving around rapidly, 32 kicking legs, one chair, and 50 yds of yarn all jumbled up in the middle of the room. A huge mess, and dangerous too. They lost their lab privileges for a week because of that.

The week before, we were unable to play a running around game outside because it kept turning into an argument and fight.

Today they were a lot better, especially the instigators (yes, there are 3 or 4 who usually are the ones to start the problems. But at age 12, it's better to follow the herd than to do as the teacher says.). But I bet that as the week progresses, their halos will tarnish and fall apart, revealing a few kids who get to do FUN book work and worksheets while the rest of the class gets to do a lab.