CRAZY MONDAY

My heart was broken today. It started out as a majorly crazy Monday. I lent the teacher next to me my copy of "Waiting for Superman" and we started the morning discussing the major points of the film. I really enjoyed hearing his points of view. He had some comments I had not thought of before which gave me a new perspective on my future career as a teacher...(insert Jaw's theme song here).

First period I had one of my gangster students who hasn't been to class since we returned from Spring Break show up today. Apparently she has had some "personal business" to take care of which inhibited her from coming to my class. Although she has been going sporadically to her other classes which is why she wasn't dropped. You have to be completely absent in all classes for 10 consecutive days before you can be officially withdrawn from school. I told her I was glad to see her and gave her the missing pile of work. We will see how hard she works to get her 12.3% class average up. She ended Semester 1 with an A.

Second period was frazzled - I desperately needed to prep for my 2 BIO classes the first of which is 3rd period. My BIO kids are taking the Science AIMS test on Wednesday and I won't see them until after they take it. There is a whole flippin section on Evolution and Natural Selection on the AIMS that I was totally unaware of. I haven't finished teaching Evolution or Natural Selection. Following my district guidelines, I am right on track and not sure how I was supposed to teach them 9 weeks of material for them to test on it with 5 weeks left of school?

I was called by my principal's secretary as soon as the bell rang signaling the end of 1st period. She asked me if I could cover an ESL (English as a Second Language) English class. She was pretty desperate as apparently SubFinder (the system us teachers can call in to when we will not be at school to find a sub) was down all weekend and they were left totally stranded. I said I would help. I grabbed my lesson stuff to try and prep while covering the ESL English class and headed out.

I walked in to the room with 8 students......... EIGHT! They ranged in age from freshmen to seniors. Students in this room claim Somalian, Iranian, and Mexican ethnicity. Their English was descent from what I could tell (as I am not an English teacher), but their behavior could only be explained with very harsh words.

I had no sub plans, no attendance, and no access to a working telephone in the room. I entered the room and the students behavior........ well, monkeys swinging from the ceiling would have been putting it politely. I asked the students; "What are you working on in class?" The responses I got ranged from: "Internet Games, My Butt, My Song, Your Momma, and The Computer." This was going nowhere. I discovered the phone didn't work when I tried to call another ESL teacher to find out what I should have them work on. How has this teacher functioned all year?!?!

After spending 7 minutes calming everyone down, putting away mp3 players, and taking of hats, I finally got out of one kid they were working through a workbook which accompanies the textbook (which by the way was probably at a 2nd grade reading level - but then again, I am not an expert in ESL or in English). Perfect. Passed out the workbooks & textbooks, told the kids to turn to the right page and begin the lesson. I turned around to get my material to prepare my class and they went crazy again! I re-gained their attention, and instructed them to get to work...... Then came the epiphany: I had to read it to them. Sad part is I think with a more structured classroom, some if not all could really could make progress.

I spent the ENTIRE class period reading to them out of the textbook going over words and their meanings and answering the questions in the workbook. 50 minutes, 8 students with 7 questions to answer each. None of them finished. Bell rang and I left a note for the next period teacher who would cover letting them know where I left off. I booked it to the copy center, made 50 copies of one sheet I yanked out of my BIO book for my kids, and RAN back to my room. Of course I was late and the kids made sure I knew I was late.

I had a lunch meeting which I will dedicate an entire post to later..... totally rained on my Monday parade.

After school, I have 2 freshmen young ladies who I have placed on the No Pass/No Play list for softball. I placed them on NPNP for 2 reasons. 1. Their behavior - both of them have been nothing but disrespectful and mean to me in class. I have been as polite and patient as possible and they both have snubbed me one too many times. 2. They are literally failing (52.3% and 50.1%) - the only reason they are failing is because of their behavior in class. When they snub me, they are retaliating because I am asking them to stay on task and complete their "in-class" assignments. I have almost literally gotten rid of homework in my Physical Science class. First, very few actually do it. Second, the one's who do it allow their classmates to copy. What is the point? Extra grading for me.......????? nope.

These young ladies came to see me after school today. I was still trying to pull myself together after my lunch meeting and make it to my new job tutoring a student at a nearby private school in Biology (today was our first meeting). The girls came in and both said; "Miz, you are failing me." I responded with my standard response about being responsible and reminded them of all the times I asked them to get to work. Then they followed with; "Well, show me my grade and tell me what I can do to make it up." This just irritates the crud out of me. It is not my job to keep up on all my students grades and tell them what they are missing. That is what due dates are for. That is why you are responsible and check your grade online to see what you are missing or if you are in danger of failing. I printed their grade reports and scooted them out of my room since I had to go meet a student who actually wants to learn science (and who hasn't hear me say it 3x's in class before). I am over this whole NPNP thing! OVER IT! You are on NPNP, it is not my job to get you off of it! You had the exact same opportunity to turn in and complete the assignments as everyone else. Take some responsibility for your actions!

The tutoring went AMAZINGLY WELL! I am exhausted after such a long day - but so excited to work with this little kiddo!