Heard in the classroom today:
Sally had the following answer on her paper:
47.32325666 (or something like that)
I said, "You only have to go to two decimal places, then stop."
Sally says, "Which side?"
Good grief, it's going to be a loooooooooooong year.
We all have our duty. Sometimes we shirk, sometimes we excel. Duty can take many forms- it is our duty as humans to care for each other, because we have that ability. I tell my kids that having a ability gives you a responsibility to use it well. We are kind to each other, treat each other with dignity and respect, not because someone is watching (like God or Santa Claus) but because of the merit in Doing Right because it is Right. We have a duty to keep our word. Say what you mean and mean what you say and all that. Keep your promises. Now, is it me, or does it seem like people aren't keeping their promises anymore?
I struggle these days keeping my hope for the future alive. I've becomes jaded. If people tell me something I often wonder if they are being truthful. I especially don't believe any of the talking heads I see on the boob tube (which is one reason why I don't watch the news).
In the dark of the night, I wonder what's wrong with me... have I lost some important piece of me- the ability to believe in people? And when, oh when, did I lose the ability to believe in myself?
//end whine
We have duty stations where I work. For 9 weeks we stand in a certain area of the compound and make sure there is no he-ing and she-ing or fights, our presence is mostly preventative in nature. If you are lucky enough, you have something to lean on and can grade papers... I was not so lucky this time. We have 1500 kids at my school and a community area that used to have grass. In the morning, the kids mill around there like sheep (that's where they learn to be sheeple I guess) while we act like those cute dogs and bark at them every now and again. There are usually a lot of kids there i nthe morning- several hundred. There are 5 teachers assigned to the area, supposedly spread out to the 4 quarters to watch them. Usually it was just 2 of us.
Now I ask you, what do you think 2 teachers can accomplish if something starts to go wrong in that area? Which it can- in a flash. And somehow whenever trouble is brewing, there is some secret teenage communications network that we can't tap into into, because suddenly, instead of three hundred kids, you have six hundred. And in this day of Jerry Springer Reactionary-ism, you can guess what a total fuck up a fight can turn into.
Anyway, yesterday was my last day there, and about 10 minutes before duty was over 2 of the teachers who almost never show up finally did, a minute or so apart. The first is a coach, very even keeled, pretty laid back. So I say, "Nice of you to show up for the last day." I've been giving him shit about it for weeks and he just laughs it off, taking the ribbing good-naturedly. The second lady shows up and I repeat my witty line, "Nice of you to show up."
Now, folks, I was kidding. Really. Not being bitchy or anything.
And then she gives me the classic "Fuck Off and Die" look, smiles and walks off.
Which of course, made the whole thing hysterical and got me laughing pretty hard.
Heh, joke her if she can't take a fuck.
Okay, we're continuing our discussion of Newton's Laws of Motion. I'm showing them my big jar of Martian eye balls (olives) and how they stay still in the jar when you spin the jar really fast, why rockets take off using balloons. Then, it comes time for a net force demonstration.
I say:
"what would happen if I took a straw and blew on the ping pong ball sitting on this table."
(you can tell this is gonna be bad- I said blow and ball in the same sentence. Already my radar is going off)
I set the ping pong ball on a small table.
"I need to volunteers. You girls over there, y'all have been blowhards today come on up."
"Now get on your knees, in front of this table"
(Oh, shit)
"Now take your straw and blow on this... this.... thing.... with out letting it fall off the table."
(I couldn't even look at the class)
One of the girls is blowing so hard the ball keeps flying off the table
(Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it. Don't look at anyone)
"Don't blow so, um, hard"
It is a testament to how much reserve and willpower I inherited from my father: I never even cracked a smile.
But damned if none of students laughed either.
Education is like beating a dead horse. It's insanity defined, really. We have these expectations of our students and ourselves. And parents and communities. We want our students to love learning and want to better themselves. We want to inspire all of our students. We want the parents to support us and hold their children accountable, that what they do in school is the minimum, not the max. We want the community to support us.
Dead horses cannot give us what we want. We beg the horse, give it water, food, berate it, even beat it. My high school students only do the minimum, many only because we hold their feet to the fire. They don't see the rewards of hard work over time.
But why should they? TV shows them solutions to life in 3o minutes or less, many actors/artists/whatevers have 30 days marriages, jump from cause to cause, lead these crazy ass life styles.These are our children's role models.
Even their forms of communication are truncated- OI812, CUL8R, ETC, TTUL8R,LOL, fer fuck's sake. Everything has to happen right now, with little to no work on their end. Where did we go wrong? Was it when we decided we wanted them to have a better life than us? No wants, all the toys they can handle. New, better, faster, more gigabytes.
I've said it before, Jerry Springer marked the beginning of the end.
What's the solution?
I tell ya, some days, life imitates art.
How, You say?
Well, glad you asked:
We're getting ready for our big end of the year and doing reviews.
Several of my students got off task whilst we were going over the questions, and got their answers mixed up.There were questions like
Which one was that?
That's 12? No, 13.
14? Is that with an I?
That's true? What?
What?
What?
So, says I, "This sounds a bit like "Who's on first?"
And immediately, several students start doing the shtick...
I settle them back down and continue.
A few minutes later, from the back I hear
What?
I don't get it...
Huh?
What?
That's supposed to be a joke?
heh, some days I just have to hang my head in wonder..
So far our school has raised almost 400 dollars between 3 teachers using the toilet as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. How cool is that?
Turd in a punchbowl
Smells like dirty socks
Turd in a punchbowl
VR students ROCK!
Whilst I'm all about giving people the recognition they deserve, I have mixed feelings about BHM. Do we Chinese History Month? Or Irish? Hungarian? Women's? (OK, you got me there)
But it's on TV, and probably a few Hallmark Cards, so it must be a valid, um, holiday observance thingy, right?
But I digress, again.
Pete has just informed me that every Wednesday the kids in her class celebrate BHM by "finding a story about an African American in the paper. Then we read the article and tell why that person is important."
Heh heh...I was tempted to tell her to look for Al Sharpton in the news today....heh heh
Had a dream the other night that a guy in a trench coat came into my classroom and started shooting up the place. I've been keeping my door locked until yesterday. I kept looking over my shoulder every time I heard something. Man, I hope this is just bad dream heebie-jeebies....
Ever had a dream come true?
update:
In the middle of the day one of my students comes running in the door (tardy) and announces to the whole class that there had been a fight in the front of the school and someone had fired a gun. After telling her she better not be lying, and making sure my door was still locked, I called the front office on my cell phone. There had been a fight, but no weapons had been used. I found out later that a student had been sitting atop a tall table and had knocked it over, creating the sound she mistook for gunfire.
I then had a talk with her about creating panic and next time not to announce it to the whole class. I think she did it for effect. She probably did hear something and let her imagination run wild.
Stupid girl.
My county hired a woman to keep us abreast of what's happening in the school community: births, marriages, deaths, awards, meetings, etc.. I'm not sure she should have told us this:
P. M., first grade teacher at XYZ school, mother passed away very
unrepentantly. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.Poor woman, and now we all see her shame.
Think back to your 1st paying job, probably some menial task making shit for money. You probably thought that some of the things your boss told you to do were stupid or a waste of your talent. But I bet you didn't say that too loud, 'specially not in front of the boss man, right? You probably just did it, maybe grumbled a little, but chances are it got done. Because the alternative was getting fired right? You probably did not tell your boss they were stupid because no one else had to do it, or Jimmy was taking 30 minute breaks, too, or better yet, just stared stupidly at them. Not and keep your job.
Well, maybe you did. What do I know...
Sure wish we had more of a work ethic amongst our students these days.
