Senioritis? 4/11

Today, there was something different at the PLC. I walked into Mr. Piazza's classroom and the room was buzzing. People were singing, there were two male students wandering around the room, and almost everyone was talking. Mr. Piazza greeted me with a smile (as always) and told me that Tangela was very excited that I was going to be able to tutor her today. Tangela and I said our hello's and talked briefly about our weekends before continuing her E2020 work. She had just finished watching the videos for the lesson and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw she had a page front and back of notes!! I was so excited and told her that her notes looked great! She ended up doing really well on her homework and got a 100% on the quiz! She was having a great day academically, but the way she was acting was like nothing I had ever seen. I need to take a moment to fully describe the relationships between Mr. Piazza and the students in the class. First of all, he always has a smile on his face. He is positive, funny, and up- beat. He always gives the students words of encouragement. He is very helpful and patient. Literally, I would say that he is the model teacher. He is always prepared and gives the students candy rewards sometimes! I honestly can't think of one bad thing to say about Mr. Piazza. Additionally, Mrs. Mimi, who is a part of the administration and deals specifically with tutors and the students. When I have seen her interact with the students she is always very friendly. She is informative and loving. When I see her walk down the hallway, almost every student says, "Hey Mrs. Mimi!!!" That being said, the way the students acted towards Mr. Piazza today was an utter disgrace. They were all yelling his name constantly, and ordering him to do this and that for them. I did not hear one person say thank you. He was constantly telling them to please keep the volume down so that we could have a good study environment. The final part of the day was the worst. The student sitting next to Tangela, Keisha, yelled Mr. Piazza's name really loud and he walked over and whispered to her to please be patient because he could not concentrate while helping other students. She immediately started mocking him. Thank goodness there were only 5 minutes left in class, because Keisha and Tangela started saying how they were over the class, over the school, over Mr. Piazza, that he was annoying, etc. It absolutely broke me heart! </3 I told them to be quiet because he would hear them and be upset, but they said they did not care. I told them that I thought he was awesome and they were lucky to have him! I also reminded him that he is always kind and helpful. They just kept telling me no, and that he was annoying. Then I tried to change the subject, but they kept going. Finally, class ended and Mr. Piazza walked up and calmly asked the two of them to stay after class. He did not lose his cool, and his positive attitude did not change. He really taught me a lot today about patience. Mr. Piazza is a great role model for me, and I hope the students do not act this way again. Sadly, most of them are graduating in the next month, and I think they have a bad case of senioritis. That, however, is no excuse for the disrespect they showed Mr. Piazza today. Today was a sad day at my happy place :(