I must be doing something right.

This past week was a very hard one for me emotionally. It has been a year since my mom died, and I was really emotional and tense. Not a good combination when dealing with abrasive people, and I happen to work with a person who could be called abrasive. It was not a pretty thing to see, and I won't go into what actually happened, but I will say something was said that really, really offended me, and since I was emotional, I fought back... and then broke down in tears.

However, what I want to talk about is what my students did. As I said, I broke down. I ran into my room, forgetting I had a few students in my room. They saw me, and quickly left to lunch. However, when lunch was over, one of them slipped back into my room and left a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi on my desk with an envelope. In the envelope was a gift cert for a 50 min massage... which started me crying again.

The next day, during the class who witnessed the incident, I had several students tell me how grateful I was that I stood up for myself. More than one stepped up to tell me that despite what this other person had said, I was a good teacher, and they were learning a lot from me.

I figure, if my students are doing and saying these things, I must be doing something right, and in the end, that is what is important.

tickish you say?

What I heard today:
"When I move my nose stud in and out, it tickles."
I'll remember that...

TAs and Sticky notes.

This is what happens when you leave a TA sitting at your desk without giving them a job to do:










It made me giggle to see all of the cute things she had written. She came up with some great puns! Some of the thing she had written: My stories are "permanent", I'm pretty "sharp", Let's "cut" to the point, and so many others! It was too funny. Now I have to decide if I should take them all down or leave them up for a while.

Play nice

Yesterday, I decided to play a game with my kids. I had this idea of a game that I had played before, but instead of writing it on the board, I turned it into a powerpoint. It was awesome! The kids had to use flyswatters and race each other to slap the right root word/example word/definition.

I wanted it to be fun, and to get the kids out of their seats moving around, which it did. However, I failed to take into account the exuberance, and competitiveness of teenagers. These kids committed to the game. I mean, they were really competitive, and it was so much fun to watch! It was loud and fun as they cheered each other on, each team trying to help their runner without giving the answer away to the other team. Everyone was having so much fun!

Until there were injuries. Yeah, I had students get injured in my class. Oops. I guess that is why I shouldn't have let the two football players play against each other. One of them totally body slammed the other into the whiteboard, which, as most whiteboards do, has a nice try right at waist level for the markers and erasers. The poor boy didn't know he needed a cup for English class, but he won and scored the point foe his team.

And then there was the girl who had the same thing happen, only I think she dented the tray with her hip. However, she was amazing! Even after having been dropped to the floor, and crawling back to her desk, making a huge deal about how "hurt" she was, she agreed to a rematch and played again. And lost.

So the lesson is, kids will play rough no matter what, even when they are playing nice.

Hello foot, meet mouth.

I had had a panic attack a few days ago (I don't recommend them; they aren't so fun) and had to take one of my anti-anxiety pills. Only problem. I forgot how strong it was. So I took it and went to bed. The next morning I could not wake up! I had to work, so I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get moving.

During my first hour class, I was really dragging. I kept making mistakes on the board: I would forget what i was saying, write the wrong thing on the board, etc. And they noticed. I tried to explain, but what came out was.

"Oh my gosh! I am so hung-over!"

There was a beat of silence, and then, as I realized what i had said, I tried to back peddle all to the great laughter and enjoyment of my students.

"Not hung over! No! I didn't get drunk last night! I don't drink! I mean, I guess I could, I am old enough, but I don't. I couldn't sleep and popped some pills...wait. I didn't mean that! I took one pill. I don't take drugs! It was a prescription. My prescription. Crap. I'm done. Forget everything I just said. Let's get back to work. I am so fired."

Hello foot! Meet mouth! Lesson learned: Keep you mouth shut when you don't know what is going to come out of it.

A new school year, new lessons learned.

"Wait, did they have car's in 1950?"

"What's the capitol of Rhode Island?" "Washington DC"

"Isn't the capitol of Maryland Washington DC?"

All of these were said in my classroom by the same student. Why she thought Washington DC was the capitol of both Rhode Island and Maryland is still a mystery. And Why she was talking about history and geography in my English class is an even better question... or maybe the better question is why I wasn't surprised at these conversations when I have only met this student last week... Hmm points to ponder.

Sympathy

This post isn't a comedic one. It isn't something funny a student said or did. It isn't a stupid comment that made me ask if they really said that. Nothing like that. This post is for my own personal reflection.

Three months ago today my mom died. We found out she had cancer two months before that. To say I wasn't the best teacher during those few months would be a huge understatement. I was very distracted. I lost my temper easily. I was impatient. I lost assignments. I was not a very good teacher. I was so sick of these damn kids who cared nothing about this personal hell I was going through and only wanted me to grade their paper NOW! It was not a time where I could look at what I was doing in my classroom and say "Look at what I did! I rock!" No, it was me looking around saying to myself "What did I just do?"

I was walking on eggshells. Every time the secretary called into my room I was worried it would be to tell me I had a phone call, which is really pathetic since I always had my cell phone in my pocket turned on, ready to answer at a moments notice. I lived in fear for that one call that would tell me my mom was gone. It wasn't pretty.

Yet, even with all of that turmoil, there are some small things that I think of, and they touch me. I had one student stay after class to alphabetize assignments for me, and it wasn't because she needed to make up a tardy!I had other students volunteer to make copies for me, bring me in a Pepsi, organize books, or just ask what they could do. Just knowing that these people cared enough to not only put up with my very emotional days, but tried to make them better made it possible for me to go on.

One of the things that meant the most to me happened on my first day back after the funeral: a student brought me in a sympathy card. It was a very simple thing, yet it meant the world to me to know that this boy had been thinking of me enough to buy me a card, and carry it around with him until I came back. That simple card made my day so much better, and it made me stop wallowing in self-pity.

I learned one of my most valuable lessons at this time. Students are people, and they care about you. Even if you had to have a meeting with this student and his parents and the principal. Yes, even then. They still care.