Daaaaang.

It's been a while since I've posted here. Uh, oops.

There's just been a lot of things to write about, but dealing with all of those things has been so tiring that I haen't wanted to sit down and write them.

I also don't really know what to say. Still trying to figure the purpose of this blog and what I should focus on posting here. Also: trying to figure out my purpose in being a teacher. It's probably just that time of year: when I start asking "Why did I choose to become a teacher again?" more & more. It'll pass, as always.

I had a great holiday break, though. We went to Michigan for a week, which was awesome, then came back to Richmond with Megan and had some fun down here. There was snow, cold winds, and games. Couldn't ask for a better winter break.

I'll post again soon, I swear it!

surprise day off!

My school is closed today due to having no power thanks to a massive amount of rain. It's a good thing I'm home, too, since the doors to our front porch really like to let in all the rain. I've gone through almost 5 towels now. Oy.

Anyway, I've hit one of the times in the year that I hate. It's the first time in the year that the kids stop being your great new students and you start seeing their bad side. It's also the first time I start to doubt myself as a teacher because grades start sliding downward. Kids start getting sick of school, start disappearing more, and I start getting more annoyed.

Thankfully this week hasn't been too bad. Usually by this time in the school year, my initial motivation has really disappeared and I get behind, causing me lots of stress. I've been pretty consistently productive, even today when I had no school! This is a good feeling.

My 10th graders are really something else. Their personalities are really starting to show up to class, in a good way. There were many times I laughed really hard this week at something they said or did (not at them, but with them, mind you...). I can't really remember exactly why or can't quite put any of those examples into words--they are more the kind of moments that make me wish I had a video camera on to capture. You-had-to-be-there kind of moments. Retelling them and trying to explain to you wouldn't be the same, unfortunately.

There is one thing that sticks out from this week. As you may know, every year I've taught, I've had at least one pregnant student or student parent. It's my curse. I joked with Math Teacher Next Door about how I should warn any female student I get next year. I have two rumored pregnancies this year, in the same class. I overheard one conversation (I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, they were right next to my desk) where the PG girl was answering questions of one of her classmates. Her classmate asked her "How does your BF feel? Does he want it?" PG says, "He did at first, but now... no. What does he care? His life doesn't have to change. It's my life that's the one that will change." I broke in and said "Ain't that the truth." She kind of laughed, which is the reaction I was hoping for. On the one hand, it's sad that her boyfriend isn't supportive. On the other, I was glad that she realized exactly what she was getting into, had no delusions about what would happen, and wasn't letting him slide by with that attitude. I hope everything goes smoothly for her, she is really sweet.

Who else but 7th period?

Dear 7th period,

My last period of the day has always been the most interesting. I seem to get a mix of the smartest, brightest and most rambunctious kids all in one class of 26-28. Your class has definitely been the most tame (even though you don't think so) and the most advanced. You all pretty much have personality and get along, which I like.

Today, for example, we read about Theseus. I figured you would not be into it at all, like most normal teenagers, but you surprised me again! You came up with History channel references, knew a lot about ancient Greece and really, really enjoyed when I called the Minotaur the "bastard child" of Minos' wife (not to mention when I called Gwynevere from Sir Lancelot's tale last time an adulterous whore). I'm glad my tests to make sure you're still awake are successful. Not to mention how much you enjoyed reading about Theseus torturing bandits the way they tortured other people. Oh, and I love how Troublemaker always acts out the stories, like today's reenactment of Theseus drawing out his sword to prove he was Aegeus's son (with perfect sound effects!). And it was so cute how y'all got quiet when Michael--our British kid for today--read the last paragraph of the selection because you wanted to hear him speak.

Remember how when we were done with work, you were supposed to work on your outlines, but instead danced to Thriller? I honestly didn't mind because you did so well with the story and asked a lot of questions about your writing assignments (and I also know that 90% of you will work on your own to complete it, the other 10% won't do it or will use the class time to complete some of it). Plus, it was great to see all of you laugh and have a good time together.

Basically, I really enjoy your class (even though I'd never tell you that during the school year). I look forward to it, even on your chattiest of days because you make me laugh and keep the class interesting.

Thanks for not being boring or a bunch of crazies!

Mrs. P.

Strange

My day started off with seeing two guys on the side of the freeway. I had no clue why they were just standing there, until I noticed their car halfway up a hill, between two trees. I have no idea how they got that car up there. There was a malfunction in the fire alarm system that led to an urgent-sounding announcement that we needed to evacuate. Now. I've never seen students move so fast out of a building, except for that one time there was a gas leak at GHS. On the way home, the first stop light I hit (and one of my last on the way home) stopped working the moment I stopped after it. That's the exact moment I started shaking my fist and saying, "It's TUESDAY! Not MONDAY! What is going on?!"

I realized I haven't told you how much weirder my students are this year. They have so much more humor and personality as a whole, it's crazy (awesome)! This is a plus for me because they seem to understand my sense of humor, which keeps me on my toes a little more (I like that).

For example:

Me: Why are you hovering outside of my door?

"I've been in jail" 9th grade boy: I can't hover. I don't know what you're talking about.

Me: You mean you didn't buy those special hovering shoes?

Mr. IBIJ: Nah, they were sold out.

I didn't expect him to come back with that.

A lot of my students seem to enjoying my habit of booing or yelling "Whoaaaa!" while making overacted arm/hand movements at students. We've done this in the hallway, at one of my students as she hugged her boyfriend goodbye (Math Teacher Next Door took part in that, too), and at multiple silly children who thought they could throw me off my game.

Oh, and we did that at the girl who brought about the first Classroom Joke.

Ahh, I love the time of year when the first joke that unites most of a classroom comes along. Today I caught a girl being forced by a male classmate to touch another male classmate's butt.

I yelled across the classroom, "Lady L, butt touching is banned!.... Plus, we don't know where Skater Kid's butt has been." Skate Kid says, "Yeah, seriously. My butt's been a lot of places." She says, "I guess I just can't help it..." Hilarious! I'm glad she went with it! This led to an ongoing joke about how L was addicted to touching butts and had to go to rehab. It was ridiculous, but made the whole class laugh.

That time of year

I keep feeling like I catch up only to fall behind again. My to do list never seems to end! Every day there seems to be more things to do and I find more reasons not to finish things and, instead, go home early. My initial motivation and initiative is kinda gone. This usually happens around this year, where I don't have to rush so much and find some sort of balance. Unfortunately, this usually leads me to laziness and procrastination. This is why I'm posting: a little reminder to myself to get my as back in gear.

Here are some highlights:

-40 kids showed interest in the literary magazine. Whoa. We'll see how that goes.

-They keep interrupting English classes again and again for just about everything. Just because English 9 and 10 do not have an SOL doesn't mean we don't have stuff to do.

-We bought Wii Fit. I love all the games in it.

-Something I've been thinking about: Do you ever find yourself thinking about the same people around the same time? For example, I usually find myself thinking about my grandpa or grandma Pushie around 3:30 (my drive home from school). It's usually my family and wondering what they're doing around 6 or 7. I just noticed that I do this most days, and I find it very interesting. Do I connect these people with these times for some reason?

-Have you see Glee or Modern Family? Awesome! New seasons of Mad Men and Dexter? Love them! Although I haven't really liked the new season of the Office as much as I expected, I loved the Jim/Pam wedding!

-We went to see Zombieland and it was AWESOME. I can't wait to see Where the Wild Things Are this weekend!

-Pictures of National Equality March should be up soon on flickr and I'll prob. post a bit on here as well.

It's October already?!

Holy moly. It's October. Already.

I have a lot I could post about, but right now all I want to do is breath & relax for a second. We had a pretty busy weekend, we have another sort of busy one coming up, and I've already taught 4 classes, graded, made dinner, and run errands (and while running errands: avoided buying up all the cute Halloween stuff I found, haha) all before 5. Whew.

Then again, I promised myself I'd blog more. Here's a compromise:

• This year is waaaaaaaaaay better than last.
• I love my principal, Math Teacher next door, new AP (assistant principal, for those who don't eduspeak), and other snarky English teachers.
• I love my little English 9 kiddos! I did NOT expect to ever say that. They are crazy (in a good way), hilarious, creative, pretty well-behaved, enthusiastic, and have tons of personality.
• My throat is so horribly dry today (and yesterday) that I could only talk at a normal tone. There was no Teacher Voice today. Thankfully, the kids were very supportive (even talkative 7th period!)
• I've been having a lot more success with correcting students behavior using a hand on the shoulder and conversational tone. This only works during independent work time or when my co-teacher is in the room and I'm circulating, but it's amazing how this works on kids who were seen as "bad kids" to other teachers.
• Yesterday I hung out with other teachers outside of school for the first time. Okay, it was a baby shower for another English teacher, but it was something! I went. I laughed. I played games. It was fun. Oh! And I wore my "There Their They're" shirt from Threadless and they all commented on it!

And a big announcement:

I am now the sponsor of the new literary magazine. New School hasn't had one for years, but they desperately need one because those artsy, nerdy kids are getting no love or recognition from our school. I stepped up to do it even though I honestly have no clue what I'm doing. I already have about 25 kids who came in to say they're interested. There are flyers all around the school. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have something to show for our effort.

3 Weeks In

This week was the busiest and most tiring week so far. We had meetings, we had Back to School night, and I had piles and piles of things to grade. I attended all of the meetings, which went quickly & painlessly. This weekend, I will tackle 90% of the grading. It won't take too long, since it's all homework and classwork & a credit/no credit situation. As for Back to School night... it was the smoothest one I've had to do so far.

I really don't like meeting parents, probably due to the fact that I know they all have different expectations of what a teacher should be. Some of them want me to be the Grammar Nazi English teacher that will beat their children over the head with spelling, grammar, reading and writing. Some of them want me to just pass their kid, no matter what. And some of them DGAF what I do, as long as their kid learns something and I have a reason behind my actions. I'm betting that all of them expect me to be (or at least look) older. I used to try to impress upon them that I was that intimidating teacher (to the kids) and that they can trust me with their child's education by trying to be overly professional sounding, even though I look like I graduated last year. I don't do that anymore because it's ridiculous. I got tired of worrying if they automatically judge me as incapable due to my appearance, which I have no control over. (My mom would probably say they were just jealous of the fact that my family ages well, even though she once commented on how my 7th grade science teacher looked too young)

Truth be told, most parents are afraid of me just because I am The English Teacher. I know we've ALL had an English teacher that was a major bitch, no matter what you did. I had a few teachers like that throughout school--nothing you do will ever be good enough, they have ridiculously high expectations, they find it rude if you sneeze or cough without asking you first and punish you for ever smiling. Oh, and they correct your grammar at all times and look down on you if you don't speak or write "correctly". You don't know how many emails I've received from parents that have a note somewhere in there mentioning how bad their grammar and spelling is and to not grade them (or their student) on it.

Based on this, I went into this Back to School night with a different mindset. I dressed nicely (which netted me a lot of compliments that day) and I came up with a great plan to use the Promethean board to show my class website, the syllabus and the online textbook. These parents want to know that I mean business and I know what I'm talking about, but they don't want to be intimidated by me. I finally took the same approach I have with their children and applied it to them: I may look young, but I am an adult. I let them know that I know what I'm talking about, I've done this job before and had success, I'm approachable, and I'm more than willing to listen to their concerns. I don't care if the kids are intimidated by me, but I don't want their parents to be.

Unfortunately, this approach does not work on parents who like to intimidate teachers. Nothing I can do about that, though.