|
current |
7 November 2002 - 7:00 PM I went back to school today, finally. Luckily it seems that everyone is sick, so many teachers have been out. Even our principal was out for almost an entire week. I was really disappointed by the students because when I walked in, the room was a mess. There were books randomly laying on the floor and on desks, plus pop bottles on the floor. I allow pop in class (one of the only that do), and that just pissed me off. Then, to top it all off, written on the windowsill is a bad comment about the substitute! It was written in pencil, but I still could not believe my eyes. Besides being vandalism, it was vandalism of MY room, not to mention vandalism of the room that I painted on my free time! I was so enraged and saddened. The sub notes were okay, but not great. So I told every single class exactly what I told you just now. About how I walked in and saw the mess, and saw what was written and was so sad and disappointed. I said that when a teacher is at home and sick they think about how things are going, and I expected that they would be behaving well, so it just made me feel ten times worse to come back and find that. For the most part they seemed to take me very seriously. I also explained that if the sub doesn't treat them the way they are used to being treated, they still need to do well because it is a reflection on me because I am their teacher. Unfortunately it was the sub that they HATE the most, but that is no excuse. I did give them the opportunity to share with me what things went on with the sub, which they always love to do. The freshmen were especially good about it and were very orderly with their complaints. Apparently the sub was angry with them for putting their feet in the aisle instead of under their desks. Many also got into trouble for laughing. Another got into trouble for trying to help her find the attendance sheets. Still others were told to shut up. ALL of my detention slips are gone as well, so it seems she had a field day. On the bright side, kids were VERY excited to see me back. One kid gave me a hug while others said, "We are SO glad you're back!" and how good it was to see me. So of course I felt very flattered and a bit better. They also worked very quietly today (other than the seniors) on their individual assignments. I just didn't have energy to do anything creative, even though I had other lessons planned. I was very grateful to them for working so well, so I did tell them that to end on a more positive note. Tomorrow I am going to try to do an inside/outside circle discussion with my sophomores. I found some very cool lessons at the New York Times webpage and the one I am doing is on kids being tried as adults who are 13 and 14. I hope it goes well. It calls for us to do a fishbowl discussion, but the fishbowl sounds way more complicated. I have never tried either, except in a grad school class, so we'll see how it goes. I am still pretty sick, but at least I'm on the road to recovery. I am happy tomorrow is Friday, although I am going to spend the weekend getting caught up. I actually went to bed at 9 last night, so at least I was well rested. I took a sleeping pill because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep. I have only taken one one other time, so don't worry that I am going to become another Matthew Perry.
|
