SO Frustrated!

I had a VERY frustrating day today at school. Days like this I just want to say, "ok, I had fun and now I'm done!" The students were all over the place after the long weekend, picture retakes were today so during one of my very important times in class (students sharing their culture to other students in their groups) they were called down. They didn't return until the next period to gather their things and some didn't return at all, so their stuff sat in my room all day. I'm really big on not touching other people's stuff so I just wanted to leave it there but as there would three more classes to come I moved their stuff...and they never came to get it!
Then, I get notes from home about students not understanding material and needing more help so I say, okay stay after school and they say, "I can't. I have [fill in sport here]". I say, "well school comes before said sport and if you aren't doing well in any class you can't play...do they show up after school...no. Apparently, I have to track them down and drag them to my room. I'm sorry, but I will not track students down unless its an emergency for whatever. I hold students responsible for their actions. If they choose not to stay after school then they choose their grade.

Another REALLY frustrating thing that happened today was that I assigned a story problem for homework last Thursday without giving an explanation on how to do it, and so forth. All the students come to school today and of course they can't raise their hands and proceed to shout out that they didn't understand it. When I asked what is the question asking they look at me dumbfounded, such as if the problem was written on my face. I tell them that they should be reading and not looking at me and then they get frustrated. Out of an average of 25 kids, only 5 (20 percent) would raise their hand to answer the question..the rest of the class is unable to locate the questions that are written directly on the sheet. We go through the entire problem and then one student again says, "I don't get it!"..so I say, "did you pay attention?"...his answer :NO! Can you believe that?! OMG! I was ready to pull out my hair. This problem was a process to begin with. I told all the students that I do not accept incomplete work so if they turned it in without showing any work whatsoever they would get a zero on it and would have to redo the entire assignment. Also, if they turn it in tomorrow its late. They lose either way but they deserved it for not trying. I guess my expectations are too high, but I don't believe they are too high-no one has ever expected anything from them.

My goal is to help make these students more independent, explorers, problem solvers, responsible, respectful, and risk-takers. My oh, my. I think this might be a longer year than I thought.

Don't get me wrong...I love my students, but I'm just frustrated. Next time...we'll talk about my opinion on the curriculum.