Great Lesson Gone Bad

Today I had the opportunity to really get into the classroom and teach a lesson that was relevant to the curriculum but it did not go as well as I had planned. Just thinking about it gets me in a tizzie. There was a vocabulary test given today and that went well. Many of the students did well while others did not. After the test I handed out the index cards with the sentences/phrases that were in the short story. The students were put into groups, this was not such a great plan. They were all so chatty, that I could not even give the directions and there were many students who asked 3 or four tiimes what the directions were. The activity was simple: Create a prediction based on the sentence. What aggravated me the most was that they were incapable of working together in groups and wanted everything to be spoon fed to them. It is so difficult trying to get them to participate. There were classes that were better than others but all day I felt as if nothing was accomplished. I do not know if I would use the same activity again in the 8th grade class. It seems to be that they are better off being given didos and working silently all class, but that is not my method of teaching. I was discouraged after the day was done and had to take a second to reflect on what worked and what didn't work. I also had to deal with a ton of discipline problems today. There is one student in particular that just does not shut up. It got to the point where my cooperating teacher had to pull her out of class. I also had to ask another student to move their seat. And this was not just in one class. I think all the students get together and decide on how to torture their teacher and see if they can test the limits. I was able to pull through the lessons and finish the day. I am exhausted.