I had a hard day. I need things to get better with eighth period, and I need it now. Poor, downtrodden teachers of the world...
Ever since the whole thing where I decided to start my diet soon happened, I have been eating way worse than I ever have. I am constantly eating candy, crackers, and all of the things I am not supposed to be eating. I was going to start the two week thing today and then it didn't work out at all. I suck.
I posted this whole entry but it was all about the drama at work, so I decided not to post publicly. There is a way to make the entries private. All I have to say about it was that at our team meeting there was some major drama. Luckily it did not involve me directly. It is basically everyone against one person, though, so unfortunately one person isolated herself from the team even more than she already is.
Anyway, sorry for the vagueness, but you never know when your smack talking will bite you in the ass, right? I actually like all of my team members a great deal, and hopefully this will blow over. We are going on a field trip soon, which could be very awkward if there is tension between the teachers.
One thing that might be an advantage is that at least it is all out in the open now, instead of this weird unexplained tension...hmmm. I still can't even really figure out why there are issues, but I'm just thankful that they don't involve me!
I just can't believe how much more smoothly my day goes on the days when I have my "good" classes. If all of my classes were like eighth I might just want to give up teaching! No, they aren't that bad. The thing is that they are actually pretty darn funny so that causes problems, too. When someone talks out when they aren't supposed to be talking, but manages to crack everyone up (teacher included), I can only imagine it encourages them. I TRY really hard not to laugh at their madness, but it is hard. Today was a day when we were supposed to be doing quiet writing. Well, I had to follow through on threats and send three different kids out who were talking. I sent them to the hallway, because that is pretty common in my team. Anyway, after the latest child was grumbling and moaning about how it was unfair that I sent him out, "For laughing, why am I being sent out for laughing?!" (Yes, and what about the 43 other times during the period that I told you to stop talking?!?!), someone went to the bathroom. The room is finally silent. Everyone is writing. Then, in walks the bathroom kid. As he opens the door we hear the grumbler in the hall saying repeatedly, "James, get in the hall. James, get in the hall." An obvious imitation of Ms. Boombastic; a blatent protest against the unfairness of it all. The whole class, including me, busted up laughing. Then, of course, the imitations of the imitator start--no less than four different people did impressions of the protest. The problem with this class is that they are great kids who are funny and (usually) sweet. They just cannot shut up EVER. They also have the unfair advantage of knowing that I love them, so they milk it.
There are far worse things--classes that hate you, for example. But right now I just have had enough...
Here is the thing that is the worst. You put the talkers in the front, right? You put them away from their friends, right smack in front of you. Well, what you forget is they love to talk so much that they just talk to you all period. To kids, as long as they are talking to you, it doesn't count as talking and disrupting the whole class. I have to get those talkers away from me or I will fall over. It was completely quiet at one point, then one of my talkers felt the need to say out of nowhere, "I get to be Santa Claus in a play!" I responded, "That's great, but you'll have to tell me about it later because it is QUIET WRITING TIME." So everyone thought it was very funny, and they were off again about how random he is and how funny my response was and blah blah blah.
I wish that I had a list of all of the parents' email addresses, because I find it so much easier to write than to call. I just hate talking on the phone, period. I have rarely had an unsupportive parent, but I will be scarred for life due to some mean parents during student teaching. I just hate calling.
