Classroom Qualms & Disasters

I had the worst day of my teaching experiences (ever) this week.  It came on Wednesday, the day after my students were supposed to have written persuasive in-class essays.  The problem arose primarily because there were 2 distinct groups of students: those who were present the day before and had their essays done (a total of 6 students) and those who did not have an essay done (5--all with unexcused absences, and 2 of whom were in class but decided to "pull a scissor move" and dismiss themselves from class).

I assigned the group who did not have their essays to write them in class, but all I got in response were comments deriding the task, harsh negative words about my tactics and irrational criticisms of how them not completing their work done was somehow attributable to my actions.  Meanwhile, the other 6 students--prepared and holding on for their assignment--were left in the background as the entire day's lesson unraveled. 

In a nutshell, this was the epitome of a problem that persists at B-Tech (and I'm sure plenty of other schools)--an entire group of students suffering as a result of the poor choices of those who do not uphold their responsibilities as students--either because they have taken on stances of pure apathy, or because they've simply written off my expectations of them as irrelevant and unworthy of their investment.

I'm left wondering what (and if) we can think/do about this to avoid it from continuing, especially because our school has made significant progress in the past couple years.

(i'm clearly still fuming a little about the whole thing...it really was a bad day)

but today and yesterday were markedly better.