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2001-10-22 - 6:27 p.m. Friday the journal prompt for the seniors was "The perfect senior trip..." Of course I was asked about my senior trip (we didn't have one) so I told them about grad night. I mentioned that there was gambling for prizes and they asked me if I won anything. Yes, I said, I won a big stuffed bunny and a pair of boxer shorts. "But you don't wear boxer shorts," Nick said matter-of-factly. "No, I don't," I said back just as matter-of-factly. "You wear women's panties," Nick said. Before I could reply to that comment Ricky yelled out, "Ms. Boombastic wears a thong!" That sparked a bunch of yelling about whether or not I wear a thong or regular underwear (I refused to comment). By the time that the conversation ended I was bright red. It is not as if I have never discussed thongs before but I haven't had a group of teenagers discussing whether or not I wear them before. Just one of those things you have to be a high school teacher to experience, I guess. The weekend went way too quickly, as usual. Justin ended up doing something to his foot in basketball (torn ligament?) which meant he couldn't come here afterall. He couldn't use his foot to drive. I was really sad about it because I really was looking forward to going to the Homecoming game (we actually won). We ended up just hanging out at his house most of the time, though we did end up going to see the movie Riding in Cars with Boys. I really love Drew Barrymore and Britany Murphy so I liked the movie. I was surprised at how readily Justin agreed to see it with me since he is normally so anti-girlie-movie. He seemed to like it too. I only cried twice during the whole thing. Not bad. On Friday we got our retroactive raise and health insurance reimbursment (we were working all last year without the contract so the raise is retroactive). I was really pleased by getting a check for 1028.00 dollars! So I feel a little bit better now that I have some money back in my savings account. I, of course, would like to go and buy a whole bunch of stuff with it. But I am resisting the temptation. I did buy some accessories for my digital camera though. I know it is my job as a teacher to love every student and find something good about them. However, there is this one kid that makes it really hard. Today he made a comment that really got to me and I ended up making a rather snappish reply. He has this attitude that he thinks he is smarter than me and also said in his journal that my class is an easy A (when he isn't getting an A--most of the last six weeks he was getting a D). Today I mentioned that their resumes were due tomorrow and their papers were due Wednesday. He made a comment about it being stupid but he said it in such a way that it was really rude. It was as if he was saying it was stupid as a personal thing against me (and it was, since, afterall I made that decision to have them due one after another--basically to save them from having to have something due on Monday). Hard to explain--sometimes kids say something is stupid and it makes me feel bad but this really made me take it badly. Anyway I snapped back, "Well, that's too bad!" Not very nice or mature, I know. I just get tired of rudeness for no reason. It's one thing to vent about having a lot of work and being stressed, but he was being really rude. Oh well. It just put me in a bad mood for the rest of that class period, and that is never a good thing. Luckily I didn't snap at anyone else. I had a little conversation with two boys from seventh period about how they were being distracting while we were reading and I said that they might be making the choice for themselves not to follow along but they had no right to make that choice for others that are actually trying to pay attention. Both were actually pretty apologetic and one (the one I mentioned before is my special favorite) even mentioned that he noticed people looking back at him as if to say "Shutup!" I thought that was nice that he acknowledged that. :) Oh, one thing I did with the sophomores on Friday was a lesson on the questioning reading strategy. We started by talking about things we wondered about in our everyday lives. This one kid who I have to bug to be quiet a lot said, "I wonder if teachers would understand why I act the way I do if they had to walk in my shoes for a month." That really floored me. A lot of the kids had pretty typical "I wonders..." like about what they would do after high school, but that and a few others really hit me. Now, of course, I wonder what goes on in his life outside of school. He isn't very into his journal so I don't know that much (actually he has spent much of his journal in a continueing story about some kids who find a magic five-leaved plant that they like to eat). I don't think he had any folded over pages either. I really don't read the folded over pages. I really don't feel the slightest bit tempted. Parent conferences are Thursday and Friday so I am sort of nervous about that. Oh! Another thing that I am excited about is that I got put on the textbook adoption committee by my principal. There are three English teachers but he chose me! I am so excited that I get to have some input on the book that we select for next year (wow, we will actually have books for the seniors?!?!) I can't wait. The first meeting is going to be over three days (Nov. 5,6, and 7) so that will be pretty exciting. I already asked one of the best subs in the building if he would sub for me and he said yes. Hopefully everything will go well, and I will be able to put together some good sub plans for him. I know by the time those three days are over I will be glad to go back. I went to a couple of workshops last year when school was in session and I always felt this sense of panic about how things could possibly go well without me there. Hopefully I will not have those kind of anxieties this time. Well, I have a bunch of papers that I need to grade. I really don't want to but I am trying to keep up. Sigh.
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