Whew. What a week. Sometimes being a teacher makes me rethink being a parent one day...and then I remember that I only have to deal with one that age at a time (ok, maybe 2 tops; still beats 24 by a long shot).
Hmm what awesome stories do I have to tell from this week?
Tuesday I was so mean. So the bell rings at 8:55 for the kids to line up outside. We're supposed to be in class working by 9:00. We have specials at approximately 9:10. During that interval, ideally we do morning math in my class. The concept is simple, really. There are three review math problems on the board. Students are supposed to come in, do their lunch choice, put away their coats and book bags, then sit and quietly do their three problems. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to do the actual math problems. Realistically we should be done and be able to go over the problems before 9:10, right? Ha. Wrong. At least with my kids. But I'm sick of it taking until 9:20 to be able to go over morning math, so I've found a solution that works at least on Tuesdays when we have PE. This past Tuesday it was about 10 after and kids started pointing out to me that it was time for PE. "Are we going to PE now?" I announced to the class that we weren't going to PE until everyone has completed their morning math and we have gone over it. Well, then they started to buckle down and work on it, but some of them were still waiting to see if they could really get away without doing it. Oh, don't worry girls, I know your trick of copying the answer from your friend. No, I won't check you off until I see all the work done on your own paper. Oh, and by the way, you need to be in your own seat; I never gave anyone permission to sit anywhere else. FINALLY at about 9:20 everyone got checked off and we were able to quickly go over the problems. We get lined up and head to the gym. We're not that far from the gym if we cut through the cafeteria. Well, I was at the end of the line with the stragglers and while we were still in the 6th grade hallway, I could hear my kids entering the gym, screaming, yelling, running around like crazy people, and putting scuffs on the floor on purpose (as a former custodian that really gets me). So when I enter, I stand there patiently in front of the steps of the stage where they are supposed to be seated quietly upon calmly entering the gym. Finally they get the fact that we're not starting any activity until they give me their attention. It is then that I calmly announce that the way they entered the gym was completely unacceptable and they needed to line up at the door because we were going to go back to class and try it again. By the time we were finally able to quietly and appropriately walk to the gym, we had 5 minutes of PE left. I did let them play dodgeball which is their favorite, but they wasted their time making poor choices. I was pretty pleased with myself and being mean though. Hehehe...
Wednesday night McKensey colored my hair dark brown. Kind of a drastic change. On Thursday morning I had half the class start to ask me if I was the substitute. If only I had pulled a
Miss Nelson and dressed up as an evil substitute to whip my kids into shape. I think next week I'm going to have straight hair and draw from its power to be mean Ms. G.
Another funny moment from yesterday. We're starting a unit on argument writing and so we started by having a mini debate about the amount of homework they have. Of course the vast majority whined about how they have "way too much" homework. (Uhh, these kids have NOTHING compared to what I had when I was in 6th grade.) Well, I have one student who just moved to America from Armenia like six months ago. He was trying to argue that we don't have enough homework. He told us that he used to have so much homework that he would come home from school and have to work on it until like 10 every night. The kids all just kind of stared at him in disbelief. Then the mean girl of the class who was sitting next to him looked at him and said, "Ew. Is that why you moved here?" And it was actually really quite funny. And he laughed too so it wasn't mean.
Well, in case you were wondering, there isn't anything much better than spending a Friday night catching up on grading assignments from the past two weeks. It's ok though because then I get to binge on ice cream and Vampire Diaries. So it's pretty much a win-win. Definitely beats going on dates or having a social life every time. (Oh the life of a first year teacher...is it almost over yet?)
No comments:
Post a Comment