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2001-09-27 - 9:53 p.m. I'm listening to Bob Dylan. I had a pretty good day at school today. I did this thing called Character Creations with the sophomores and they got really into it. No complaints all day + excitement over writing = happy Ms. Boombastic. One of the kids that can be rather rowdy in seventh period kept yelling, "My story is going to be so BAAAAD!" That was a particularly triumphant moment for me because this is a kid that normally complains about the various assignments. I need to work harder to come up with creative/fun ideas because it is nice when they enjoy what they are doing. I know that they are learning (well, I hope) when we do NOT fun stuff, but I know they learn from the fun stuff too. It's HARD coming up with educational fun stuff though. I am creative in some ways, but it takes me awhile. I realized while reading some of the kids' papers/letters to me that part of the thing with seventh period is that THREE of my boys in there were expelled last year! Hmm, how nice of them to put them all into the same class. One of them I witnessed the reason he was expelled; he has major anger issues. Another got caught with pot in his bag (this I know because he wrote his personal experience paper on it--he called it the worst day of his life.) I am not sure about the third, but he is super quiet and sweet. The pot smoker is my special favorite. He's one of those sort of angry kids, but I can tell he wants to do well this year and got really excited over his grade being a C and wanted to improve it. He also reminds me of one of my favorite eighth graders who was also an angry kid with a sweet side. We'll see how things go... The good thing is that I seem to be on the good side of all of these kids and they seem to want to do a good job for me. I am feeling really frustrated with one of my students from last year that is a senior this year. He totally doesn't ever acknowledge his own responsibility for any of his problems. He's an angry kid (What is it with these angry young men types? What are they so mad about anyway?) One day we will be fine, another day he will get mad at me and sit and do nothing all period. He borrowed three books from me over the summer and is always super sweet when talking to me about books but then when it ever comes down to who is the boss or whatnot he gets mad at me. He never brings his planner (the pass they are supposed to use to go wherever). Each time he asks to go I explain he must have his pass and I said that from the beginning, and no I will not write a note instead. I am trying to be strict on this this year since last year kids were always in and out. He gets mad each time, "WHATEVER!" when I explain that last time I told him he had to have a planner. Then on his SAT quiz, where they are supposed to have the words spelled right, he had it spelled wrong and he called me over, "WHY DID I GET MARKED OFF FOR THIS?!?!" he said angrily. I looked and said, "Oh, because it is E not A," "_____ and I spelled it exactly the same and you didn't mark him off!" I look, _____ has it spelled with an A first, then crossed out to be an E. "Oh, it looks like ______ actually changed his to an E." I said. "WHATEVER!!!!!!!!!!" he says. "What do you want me to do? He changed it, you didn't." I said helplessly. Sheesh. The kids around me look at me sympathetically. I can't tell if he realizes the other kids don't like him because of how he acts or not. Sometimes I feel bad for him but he really brings it on himself. He needs to stop yelling at everyone all the time. I'm trying to talk to him about it when he does it to me, and it always ends with the lovely, "WHATEVER." I feel like banning that word from my classroom. You can do that if you're a teacher, you know. Just come up with a word you hate and ban it. With the middle schoolers, SHUTUP was a big fat banned word (well I guess it is two words). The problem with that is that anytime you hear that (or other "bad" words) in your normal life you have this permanent internal tweak whenever someone says it. Anytime I hear someone swearing, even outside of school, I have to bite my tongue before I tell them to watch their mouth. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but it is annoying. The other day this teacher had a kid not feeling good in his class who he sent down to the office. All of a sudden the kid started fainting and nearly fell on some other kids. The teacher said, "OH SHIT!" and ran and caught him. I am sure the kids got a big kick out of that. I had a pretty good conversation with the kids today about the strike business. We are "not in the business of converting students" so are not supposed to go around trying to get them to side with us. But the kids brought it up and are worried and wanted to talk to me about what would happen. I was honest and told them what I felt about everything (without getting into how angry I am about it, just worried and upset). I also had to explain why they would not be getting back their papers in as timely of a fashion since we are just working contract hours at the moment. They knew that we had written messages to the board members and wanted to know what I wrote. I wrote, "I don't want to leave my students for even a few days. I don't want to strike. Do what is right for us and our kids." Also, they asked if they should come to school or not and I said I couldn't really tell them what to do on that. If they missed school, they wondered what they would have to make up and what it would be like. I asked them what it was like when they normally had subs and they said, "Chaotic, distracting, no one learns anything!" So anyway, they made me feel appreciated and needed. :) I have REALLY good students. Oh, speaking of the strike, I was reading our local newspaper and the school district took out a full page ad about the whole strike business. They said that we voted to go on strike and had a choice in the matter--we didn't have to. They also said that the average teacher here makes 45,000 for a 190 day work year whereas the average person in this county makes 22,000 working a 280 day work year. They also pointed out their medical benefits. They ended by saying that we need to do what is right for the kids. I just thought that was plain RUDE propaganda! I couldn't believe it. Let's think about this for a minute, shall we? Yes, we may make 45,000 on average, but that number is so high because the majority of the teachers in this district are 45+ (seriously, this is why they are making such a stink about getting rid of the retirement benefits, because they know so many are retiring soon). Not to mention that the majority of those people making an average of 45,000 have masters degrees. Isn't that the whole thing--people who have bigger degrees usually make a bit more money than the average coastal worker who works in the tourist industry? I realize teachers aren't in it for the money, but I have a masters degree and am making about 32,000. Paying back my huge student loans to get that masters degree means I don't have enough money to even afford a new car if I need one. But back to my point... 190 day work year. I wonder how many days that would actually come out to if they counted all the extra hours we spend on weekends and evenings and lunches and mornings? Sometimes I work 60 hour weeks. We are also required to continue taking classes during summers or weekends to maintain our licenses, at our own expense. Not to mention how much of my salary goes right back into my classroom. Who bought a class set of colored pencils, markers, and crayons? Who bought the millions of books on my bookshelves? Who buys extra notebooks for kids who can't seem to get them for whatever reason? Hmmm...I don't think it is the district that won't even provide me with a textbook for every student. Anyway, I just hope no one falls for that crap. If we didn't feel appreciated by the district before, there certainly isn't any way that helped. It's like they are trying to emphasis the stereotype that teachers don't do anything and get good salaries and benefits and summers off. Try being a teacher for a year, you need the summer off or you would have a mental breakdown. I love the kids but it is a hard job. I heard that there are tons and tons of teachers that quit after the first or second year. If it was such a cushy job I doubt that would be happening. I do know that the majority of people out there don't buy into this and DO appreciate teachers, but that ad just made me want to vomit. Angry teacher rant out of the way. I am listening to Dr Dre's Chronic 2001. I know, I am a hypocritical feminist. Sorry about that. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I sent out an email to my friends and family telling them what was going on with me and the move and strike and only heard back from two people. I felt bad. Maybe I am being really self centered but I was hoping for more of my friends and family to be sympathetic. :) I am trying to avoid the news at this point, although even Entertainment Weekly did this whole magazine on how the news was affecting the entertainment industry. I don't want to think about it. I feel bad about my own petty stuff. I feel bad for the women in Afghanistan who are already oppressed and didn't support the Taliban in the first place. I wish Clinton was still in office because at least he had sort of a resemblence to someone you felt you could count on. George Bush scares me. Goodnight.
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