Thursday, September 27, 2007

Inmates running the asylum

I think that I fooled myself when I accepted this teaching job. Suburban schools are nice places with supportive parents, progressive administrators, and kids who seek the knowledge necessary to succeed in life. NOT! We had a gang bang type beat down in the boy's bathroom across the hall from my room. ButI digress~

In my introduction to Hawthorne today, I told my American Lit class that he was a close friend of Franklin Pierce, who was (come on you know this) ______?

Blank stares, crickets...

That guy that wrote Moby Dick?

Was he in the woods? (Thoreau/Emerson...not sure which one he was attempting to channel)

Come on Mrs. M!!

Okay, I realize that knowing Franklin Pierce was the 14th president may not make any of my students wealthy. However, most of them are taking US History. I'm sure that they've been introduced to Pierce already.

My goodness people!!

On a good note though, we're almost finished watching Moby Dick and both of my American Lit classes are enjoying the process of "reading the film." That certainly makes my heart smile. What more can you ask for? As a lover of literature, I'll take what I can get.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Are you kidding me?

Umm, yeah. While you're writing lessons, calling parents, keeping hormonal teenagers from groping each other, tracking little DJ's 8 million absences, and handling bus duty, do you think that you can put something on the bulletin boards outside of your classroom?

Excuse me?

Bulletin boards have preference over all of the above as well as my a/c being out since the start of the school year?

Okay, well thanks. I wish that I had known that earlier.

I'll get right on that.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

I'm back...

though I never really left. I felt like I needed a break to get myself organized and on track. I've started journaling on scraps of paper and that's not good (I wouldn't want anyone to find those random vents:)).

School is going well. I'm still not in love with my 9th graders but I do at least like them now. I caught half of them cheating and now they are all having "come to Jesus" moments. They can't hold water now. Perhaps they're looking for extra credit points for honesty? I don't know.

We've started our common assessments and they are not going well. Why you ask? Well, we don't really teach the same thing. We have common planning. No one utters a word for 30 minutes and then we all crawl back into our rooms and do our own thing. I did make the effort to send out a mass e-mail requesting an overview of what everyone is teaching for the next unit. I figure that we can get one really good common quiz or something. It seemed to work. Only one teacher ignored my request.

My American Lit class fell in love with The Crucible. Either that or they just liked saying "hell" "whore" and "in the proper place where my beast are bedded". They are hilarious, that bunch.

Okay, I'm posting every night now. Love it or hate it.