need to chill

Am I more in the mood to write tonight? No, not really. But I have an empty house...more importantly, the dog is with Ben...and I never pass up a chance to relax in my empty house. Most often, writing is relaxing and it is even more so when I don't have the dog yipping at my feet.

I am flabbergasted at the thought that tomorrow is Parent Teacher Conferences! This month has flown by. I have kind of a lot to write about tonight since I've been so slacker-ish lately, but I promise not to disappoint.

So we've been working on writing memoirs in the 8th grade classes. Or, I should say, we've been working on the idea of working on memoirs. They're not so much into the writing part as they are into the not working part, which for the most part they are all really good at. I often hear that as long as you are prepared the lesson or activity you plan to do on any given day will work fine. I'm here to tell you that's a big bunch of educational BS. I planned nearly every minute of class today to a T and still had enormous failure.

The idea of today's activity, which came to me in a dream, was to brainstorm. When I say brainstorm for this activity, I mean think (on your own), write (on your own) and repeat (on your own). I also mean that there shouldn't be any talking. Whatsover. Even 6 inch whispers (and whoever said those 6 inch whispers were a good idea needs to spend a little more time in a classroom). This brainstorm consisted of a piece of white paper with different categories on it (people, places, sensations, etc.) with more specific sub-categories (relatives, vacations, food, etc.). I had prepared to play some soft, thought-provoking music while they wrote and instructed them not to talk and under no circumstances where they to comment, positive or negative, about the music selection.

I explained the above thouroughly; had the biggest yahoo's and goof off's repeat my instruction and then repeated again. I began the music. And so began the laughter, talking, and complete ignorance of my instruction. I became furious inside because this great plan, which I had written out, practiced in my head, and verbalized to VK more than blew up in my face.

Sure, there were a few who followed instruction, but mostly it was chaos, and by 7th period I'd given up on the music thing and walked them through each sub-category...which I thought was worse than listening to the music, but, oh well.

Moving on.

I posted mid-term grades yesterday. It will always amaze me at student's reactions to their grades. Somehow they feel they deserve an A just for gracing me with their presence:
"So, uh, Mrs. Hubert, how come I got a C in your class?"
"Well, it looks like you've missed some assignments and you have a low score."
"But I do the work. I'm here in class."
"Yeah, but you get poor scores and/or you don't turn it in."
"That's dumb. You're racist."

(Ask any teacher at WL and they'll tell you the plethora of times they've had the "your racist" card pulled on them.)

I always make a big deal about how they earn their grades and that I don't just give them. They have to prove to me that they deserve the A. Like most teachers, I don't just give grades based on my enjoyment of you in the classroom. I'm prepared for a few disgruntled parents tomorrow and Thursday at PTC. The plus, however, is that we don't have school on Friday.

The subject I've been avoiding: Yearbook DRAMA!!!!

We decided on a theme: A Splash of Color. My yearbook rep guy came in yesterday to talk to the students about covers. Because I have such a large and diverse group of students, this discussion soon turned into an all out battle between two cover ideas: Splashes of color (ie PAINT) OR colored hand prints. Now, you tell me, which goes better with our theme? After they were all SO horribly disrespectful to rep-guy, I finally put my foot down and said we were going to do the paint splash idea because, hello, it goes with the theme and the majority of the class voted for it. No more arguing. After class, a bunch of the hand print loving gang came up with their lately consistent bratty faces and body language: "Hubert. We have a problem with you. You always pick what the other people want." Blah. Blah. Blah. "We're princesses and if we don't get what we want, we will wreak havoc on you and you WILL regret picking their ideas." Blah. Blah. Blah. "It's not fair."Blah. LIFE ISN'T FAIR!!

Today I chewed them all out saying that the fighting back and forth has gone too far and it's getting old. I also explained that some of them, due to their lack of responsibility and maturity, are very close to being kicked off the staff. I mentioned how life isn't fair and sometimes you have to live with "majority rules." I also said the cover choice had nothing to do with me picking sides; it had everything to do with what goes with the theme better (and, though I didn't say this to them, because I'm the adviser I really get final say in everything and I can do whatever I want.) I don't know if it really calmed the hand print gang down, but they'll have to live with it for now

(PS...these girls are also the same girls who flat out told me that if I ordered them t-shirts and not sweatshirts, they would not wear them. They are big ol' brats!)

On the other hand, I have great news regarding the school newspaper staff. They are great and fun and I'm loving the mixture of students. I found a really great company that specializes in printing school newspapers. I can create the newspaper on line, send it to them, and then they print and deliver it. It will look like an actual newspaper, on newsprint, and will be much bigger than last years paper. The kids are all excited and we hope to have our 1st edition out by mid-October.

I had an informal observation today. The principal dropped by during 2nd period and asked if he could watch for 10 minutes. It was yearbook class and they were taking a test, but he said afterward that everything was fine. He will be coming in November for my first Formal Observation of the year.

As far as my non-teaching personal life, I really haven't had a chance to have one lately. I've been busy with planning lessons and my ESL class and grading for mid-terms, I really haven't had a chance to just, as my students love to say, "chill." I have nearly one week's worth of TIVO shows to watch, three overdue library books, and the Twilight series (given to me by mom) to read. If I can get through Thursday, I'll have a nice day off to "chill" and catch up on all of the above.