argh

Ever had an "ARGH!" day??

What's an "ARGH!" day you might ask?

Since I'm accustomed to answering questions like "Mrs. Hubert, what does __________ (instert word here) mean??" here's my lengthy definition of an "ARGH!" day using experiences I've had the last two days. (Sit back. Relax. Open a soda. This may be a long one...)

1. As mentioned previously, they took away all of my desks in my classroom and replaced them with tables and chairs with wheels on them. I predicted to a freakin' T what my students were going to do upon realizing the chairs had wheels.

Tuesday came and I mentally prepared myself for the experience of the wheels. I even posted a colorful, friendly sign on my board: DO NOT spin, slide, wiggle, wheel, or move around in the wheelie chairs!" I mentioned the concept to each student as they entered my room. But still, it was just too tempting and what do you think I spent the majority of class time trying to solve? Yup: they couldn't keep still in their chairs, the noise was horrendous, and despite my efforts the sign had little to no effect. Again I said to myself "Who ever picked out the chairs with wheels was an idiot!" The consequence of these wheelie chairs was little teaching and learning going on. Mostly all day I was saying over and over, "Don't roll around! Stop! I said DON'T!"

Last night after I came home in complete hysterics after my wheelie chair day from hell, Ben proposed that I put duct tape over the wheels so the kids couldn't roll ANYWHERE. I took with me to school a HUGE roll of Gorilla Tape (supposedly better than duct tape). I tested the trick on one chair and felt that it would be a satisfactory solution if I had students who just couldn't keep still.

Advisory, 1st and 2nd period did OK with the implementation of the tape element into the mix. They were mostly wheelie-free. When 3rd period came (along with the 8th graders) I was met with more wheelie craziness. It was just too tempting for some of them. I taped 3 chairs and finally gave up because it took too long.

During my lunch break I went to meet with the principal regarding my room schedule (which will come into play a little later on in the post). I mentioned how horrible the wheelie chairs were and wondered if there were any way to get some regular chairs, without wheels. I think he must like me or is just trying to keep me happy since I'll be room-less soon (and he feels horrible about it!) because he stood up in a jiffy and said that we'd go ask the librarian to see if we could exchange chairs so I would have ones without wheels. The librarian answered in the affirmative and within 10 minutes, several kids in the library during lunch had completely switched the chairs from the library and my room.

6th and 7th period students were quite upset that I took "all the fun out of this class" by taking away the chairs, but the effects of the change were immediate: no more wheelie chair problems!!

2. I held two students after 6th period today because they were being obnoxious and annoying and kept interrupting my class. They were typical teenagers and were rude and annoying when I asked them what their problem was and how could I help them. And. They were just rude and mean. But. I got over it. I had to.

3. My ESL class is KILLING ME! The teacher is also a junior high teacher so you'd think she'd kind of have sympathy since we come to class for 3 hours after an already long day. She piles on the work and we have tons of projects. I'm learning loads, but it's overwhelming!

Ah. Feels good to vent! Moving onto other things.

I started the Anne Frank/Holocaust unit today with the 8th graders. We started with what is called a List-Group-Label which is a way to introduce vocabulary terms in disguise. After that we filled in a KWL (what you KNOW, what you WANT to know, and what you Learned). Most kids were fairly compliant in these two quick, easy tasks. I was excited to teach and get them all excited to learn about something kind of depressing. One class in particular really "got it," which made me happy. After we did these activities we began watching a movie about Anne Frank as a way to give them some more background about her and the history of that time. I'm always amazing at how some kids really get excited and curious to learn and others could care less. Tomorrow we'll finish the movie and work on some vocab terms. We will start reading the play next Monday or Tuesday.

I put pink streaks in my hair...again. I was bored on Monday night while Ben was at work and happened to have some leftover pink dye so I decided to spice up my hair a bit. While over at my mom's house last night, I was explaining my reasoning behind the pink hair and she commented, "I can think of lots of other things you could do if you are ever that bored again!" She hates it but as I told her, if a little pink hair is the worse I do, she shouldn't' be too worried. My students laugh and think it's pretty cool...and they suggest I try doing a whole rainbow of colors. Luckily this dye only lasts a week or two so I won't be like this for long.

I lost my two wonderful student aides this semester. They both had to take some other class (apparently more important than making all of my copies) so now I'm stuck doing all the grunt work again. Grunt work here really means this: making copies, creating and removing bulletin boards, straightening bookshelves, taking the recycling box out, etc. etc. etc. I'm working on getting a new one, but my chances look slim.