#weekendstatus

The week started off well enough. And maybe that should have been a hint. The kids were a little wild, but there was a full moon (a supermoon and an eclipse no less!) Sunday night. I expect them to be a little wacko. There were several sports games this week too. The Fall sports are starting to wind down a bit as we get in Sectionals and such.

Today was wild. My Juniors, who up until this point have been pretty good about being quiet in class were rowdy and rude. Snarky, disrespectful, I-should-give-you-demerits rude. There are 5 of them that are consistently making noise, and it’s not the I-asked-my-friend-a-clarifying-question noise. It’s the what-are-you-doing-after-school noise.  

I don’t mind a little noise, I understand they will sometimes talk--they’re teenagers that grew up with cell phones. They’re used to 24/7 external stimulation. (Which in my opinion is ridiculous....I mean, come on, unplug for FIVE minutes, please!) But if I have to use a loud voice to teach my lesson when the students are sitting 5 feet from me and they can’t hear what I’m saying, and/or I can clearly understand conversations that are happening that are NOT about Algebra....Yeah, I’m gonna get kind of angry. 

I only have one hour a day off, and my voice is so tired by the end of the day that other teachers are asking me if I’m getting sick. Which I’m not. I just use my voice so much that it’s fatigued. Severely.

One student, who insists on sitting next to his girlfriend (?) (I don’t know, they’ve broken up or almost broken up so many time already this school year, I have no idea what’s going on there...). Fine. Whatever. You think this is a good idea; I know it’s not for either of you. He failed the class last year because he never turned in homework. He’s already started that pattern this year. He was the most snarky.

Maybe he’s upset because I put in zeros for the late work he has yet to turn in. It’s been 2 weeks, and he hasn’t turned in 5 assignments. I’ve given him time to do them and turn them in, but he hasn’t. This is the same pattern he fell into at the end of the school year last year. That’s why he failed. Had he turned in the homework, he might have passed. Maybe. 

I had a break-through (hopefully!) with another student, though. After a lengthy, one-sided phone call with her mother (where mom was doing all the talking), I met with the student after school for an hour. We’re going to meet weekly to check in on homework and comprehension. More importantly, we’re going to check in to make sure her binder is organized. She keeps all her papers IN her books. So, she looses a lot of assignments. We’re going to work on keeping them in order, in her binder, gradually. She takes ADD medication, but her parents have never held her accountable for anything. Even when she was home-schooled. So, there are a lot of gaps I’m having to fill do to her parents’ lack of...well...parenting.

AND another reason I’m glad it’s Friday. Someone donated money to our school for maintenance purposes. Which is wonderful. One of the parents is donating his time to paint all the classrooms and the hallway. Which is marvelous. But, this process didn’t start until school started, so our classrooms have been one by one, torn apart for roughly a week. In the larger classrooms, this is not so bad. My classroom however, is tiny, and we had to take out one of the tables so that everything could be pushed into the middle of the room. Luckily, my largest class in that room is 4....excepting band where I have 11. It’s not going to even possible for us to rehearse next week. Of course, the kids then think we’re going to have study hall instead. HA. Nope. Theory lesson time!! So, that’s actually good time on that part. Every other class will be a bit of a nightmare for the next week though. Yippee.