Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Purrs

1. 

   OMG!!!!! My head is spinning like mad! (At this point, Instinct is saying to himself "...and this is different because...?")

   I don't have 70 7th graders, I have 70 DEMON SPAWN FROM HELL!!!! You'd think they were 7-year-olds instead of 7th graders! My hand is killing me from writing up students for shouting, running amok, and disrupting the 3 or 4 who are actually inclined to do their work! Every day someone (and it's a different person every time) in every single class walks into my room without pencil, paper, textbook, or reading book (all required in my class every day), and expects to be excused from work because he/she did not come to class prepared. Today, it was MY OWN SON! AR-R-R-R-R-RGH!

   All that's in their otherwise-cobwebbed heads is Halloween. I AM SO SICK OF IT!!! "What are you going to be?" "Will you take your kids trick-or-treating?" (my kids are 19, 15, and 11--WAY too old for trick-or-treating, even if I were inclined to participate!) The most sickening question of all: "Are you giving us candy?"

   What? Do I look suicidal to you? Hell no, I'm not giving you candy!!! Why don't I just have an Aggie Bonfire at a natural gas wellfield while I'm at it?

   Thank God I will be at an in-service tomorrow. It's the 2nd of a two-parter on teaching writing, and my 6th of 7 100-mile (one-way) trips I have taken for in-service training the past 4 weeks. I like going to Victoria, but there is such thing as too much of a good thing. However, I am wondering if I will be able to keep my composure if one of the other teachers at this session shows up in full costume. PMS and "ad nauseum" are a dangerous combination!

   As it is, I told the school secretary that if "they" want me to go to Victoria again this semester, there had better be a gunpowder-induced incentive!

   But we got the little buggers back. We got 'em back but good! The little "angels" have to take a NCLB ("No Child Left Behind"--Pres. Bush's mandate that is supposed to be assessing the quality of instruction, but is undermining the educational process instead--elaboration would take a blog of my own, and I just don't have the time right now)-mandated national test today through Thursday. Payback's a b**ch, ain't it [evil snickering a la Muttley].

   O.K., I've vented. It was either that or visit the sanity wall, and since the custodians have already been to my room, I would have had to clean up the blood. I just couldn't make myself do that, too. Thanks for your indulgence.

   *...we now return to our regularly-scheduled purr-ogram...*

   Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

2. 

   Ginny! I am so glad you are out of there tomorrow even if it does mean a drive to Victoria!!!! Middle-schoolers are such a drive-you-crazy age group! Too bad you cant take Thursday off as well so that you avoid the still hopped up on sugar demons. Get a good book on tape and a thermos of good coffee and enjoy the drive as much as you can. Yeah you may be driving, but at least no 7th graders will be there!

   Posted 4 years ago by KYKAT 12 23 #

3. 

   Ginny, I'm not laughing at you, but your rant WAS funny. I'm sorry though. Even though your job is absolutely necessary, it sounds like it'd drive me crazy.

   Posted 4 years ago by HuddysMama #

4. 

   HM, many years ago I took a quote of Abraham Lincoln's to heart. During the darkest days of the Civil War, word got out that Lincoln was cracking jokes in Cabinet meetings. The press castigated him for his seemingly-callous behavior in the face of such carnage and death.

   Lincoln's reply shut up the negative press: "I must laugh, otherwise I shall surely weep." Finding humor in almost every situation is the only way I stay sane sometimes. If you laugh at my words yet sympathize at my situtaion, I have succeeded.

   Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

5. 

   Consider yourself successful!

   Posted 4 years ago by HuddysMama #

6. 

   I feel your pain, babe, I feel your pain. I'm out for the 5th workshop they're making me go to on Thursday--at least I won't be here when they bring backpacks full of candy to school. I almost threw a box of Kleenex at an 8th grade boy today (yes, I ALMOST did--my story is that I set it down heavily on his desk). I'm sorry, but I don't get paid enough to watch an 8th grade boy constantly pick his nose AS I AM STARING AT HIM!!!!! I won't even bother telling you all what he did with said nose memorabilia AS I KEPT STARING AT HIM IN DISBELIEF! I had already asked him if he wanted a kleenex 3 times. AHHHHHHHHHHH! We must have some of the same students, Ginny, because mine don't think they have to bring anything to class, either. Mine don't even think it's necessary to copy FREE MATH ANSWERS when we do problems together. I love the 'I don't get it' when the freakin' problem's written on the board! Why do I still like my job? :)

   Posted 4 years ago by FondaHonda #

7. 

   I keep telling you Ginny, get yourself a Sickle and the next student that ticks you of you go all "grim reaper" on him and then leave the head on your desk for the next class to see. It'll calm the rest of them down right away

   ohhhh.... boy, I know some artists who could make you a fake head and make it look decapitated....

   Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

8. 

   You know, Instinct, that's a thought. I might jack the skeleton from the Science lab, place it in my room and attach a sign that says "the last student who came in without pencil, paper, and books."

   Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

9. 

   I think you should do the Grim Reaper for halloween too. That would be sweet :D

   Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

10. 

    With an Edvard Munch mask?

    Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

11. 

    Or (if you could manage it) just a jet black, non reflective mask with two glowing eyes. If the hood stuck out far enough they would just see blackness with these evil glowing eyes looking at them

    Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

12. 

    Ginny did I ever tell you my favorite people in this whole world are middle school teachers? God bless you! I love your attitude.

    Posted 4 years ago by Boyzandme #

13. 

    Aw, shucks, Boyzandme! [blushes]

    Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

14. 

    Middle-schoolers are ALREADY social-MONSTERS;they don't need to dress up anymore at that age to prove that,do they??lol. Leave Halloween to the 5-9yr old group.These junior high terrors want the freedom that comes with being older,but they revert to thumb-sucking brats when they're expected to demonstrate the responsibility that comes along WITH that freedom!!I still tend to blame their parents though.'Tis a discussion for another thread,albeit!
    I do like Ginny's idea with the classroom skeleton!!LOL! Good one!

    Posted 4 years ago by Tigger #

15. 

    Hey, Instinct has a great idea! I like the bringing in the skeleton and putting a note on it like what Ginny described or the fake decapitated head idea that Instinct mentioned. If upper management gets their knickers in a twist you can say it is Halloween.

    Posted 4 years ago by Catlover #

16. 

    Hola, Catlover, how's it goin'??

    Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

17. 

    It is going okay. Lots to do...lots to do.

    Posted 4 years ago by Catlover #

18. 

    Ginny, I had a skeleton (real, not plastic) at the back of my biology classroom. The label on the glass cabinent read: "A former student. Any questions?" I too salute middleschool teachers. No way would I have been able to take the little monsters. Even 9th graders I suspected were subhuman. By the time they got to 10th, a leeetle more "mature".

    Posted 4 years ago by paulajeanne #

19. 

    8-D

    Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

20. 

    I still think that for middle school a cattleprod should be issued.

    Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

21. 

    All the clothes they wear are Branded.Can't they be as well??

    Posted 4 years ago by Tigger #

22. 

    or... Bark collars. That'll keep em quiet *evil laugh*

    Posted 4 years ago by Instinct #

23. 

    The other day I went into the office and asked the counselor for Duct tape "either for my hands or their mouths--I don't care which!"

    Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

24. 

    As much as I bitchandmoan, middle schoolers are the best to teach. Not too dependent on you (I don't know how elementary school teachers do it!) and not old enough to act like they know everything. Their wild antics just make each day more interesting! 2 of mine were sent to the alternative school for pulling the fire alarm the other day--unfortunately, they did it during my lunch break! :)

    Posted 4 years ago by FondaHonda #

25. 

    That happened to us the first week of school--and the first time the principal had to be off-campus for a meeting (with the Superintendent). It was lunchtime for me, too.

    FH, if only our students DID have a modicum of self-reliance; they don't. They arrive from the elementary school coddled and spoon-fed. I am supposed to be teaching gen. ed. 7th grade, but what I teach winds up being on about a 3rd grade level (with plunges to 1st) because these slugs were never taught what they are supposed to know when they were supposed to learn it, and expect to be given everything because that's how it's always been done before. If I wanted to teach 3rd grade, I would be teaching 3rd grade. I have many of the same issues you do.

    Posted 4 years ago by gatakitty #

26. 

    On behalf of my oldest child - I apologize.. LOL He was definitely one of those of which you speak. Although, I think he was worse in high school. God bless teachers everywhere.. it is a thankless job !

    Posted 4 years ago by 2 Popoki #

27. 

    It's a job full of intangibles,the fruit of your labor doesn't become apparent until they become a parent! lol. Or a doctor,engineer,civil servant,etc.

    Posted 4 years ago by Tigger #

28. 

    ....stories like these make me glad I did not become a teacher like I planned.

    And I'm sorry to tell you, some people never grow out of Halloween. I never did. When you get "too old" to trick or treat, then you become the person who sits on their porch in costume, pretending to be a stuffed prop.....until the kids get close. Then you move, and give them a heart attack. Haha.

    Sadly, most students just don't care. That kid saw you staring at him while he was picking his nose. He enjoyed frustrating you. He got the hint; that's exactly WHY he went ahead and did it anyway.

    Posted 4 years ago by Arcalian #

29. 

    Arcalian--this kiddo picks his nose ALL OF THE TIME. I talked with him after class (I did feel a little bad for maybe embarrassing him but I'd had enough of it) and I honestly think it's a habit that he's not aware of. I told him that from now on I'm going to give him a Kleenex when I notice he needs one (had already tried that many times) but that it means he was 'digging for treasures' without realizing it and needs to stop.

    Posted 4 years ago by FondaHonda #

30. 

    I admire teachers! They have the patience and love of students that I could never have. Hubby wanted me to teach down here (in Florida you don't need a degree in education, just a BA/BS in SOMETHING) but there was no way I could handle kids that didn't want to learn. I told him nope no way uh-uh! little poop heads!

    Posted 4 years ago by Bogman, Clark and Andy's mama 2/27 Florida #

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