cowboys and gang bangers

I just got home from an open house at the district where I applied for a Master's Program though Grand Canyon University. I will be starting a 24 month masters program in March. My program is called "Masters of Ed. Curriculum and Instruction: Reading." I am going through the program with my good teacher friend, Adrienne. The great part is that I will get all of my student loans paid off by the government because I work at a Title 1 school. It's an online program, I don't have to take the GRE, and my pay will increase tremendously after completing the program.

I had to start my post with a positive note because this week has kind of been filled with not so positive things.

I really hate to admit this because it will sound so horrible. Yesterday during 4th period, a student made me cry. I did not cry in front of them, but saved it for after I was done giving instructions and walked out of my room. It's been a stressful last few weeks and her comment ("This assignment is stupid. You're stupid!") hit my last patient nerve. I recovered in the bathroom and felt better after splashing my face with water. When I got back to my room, she was entertaining the other students by bragging about all of the times she's made adults and teachers cry. (Ok, so maybe the fact that I left to cry wasn't so secretive because I stormed out of there...) I thought about telling her how proud she should be of herself for making adults cry. How cool, right, to be able to brag to your peers about such a thing. Anyway...I killed this girl with kindness today and you would almost think we were the best of friends, she was so polite.

Today in 7th period my students either finished early or lied about finishing at all. We ended up having about 15 minutes of "free-time" to kill before the bell. I was trying to keep them all in their seats (usually problems are kept at a minimum if they're all sitting down). I was walking around trying to break some of the groups up and asking them to sit down, when all of a sudden, two separate wads of paper (from two different directions) hit me square on the noggin.

It just so happened that at that same time, a veteran teacher of 33 years was walking down the hall. (A little sidenote about this teacher: he's a coach from Spanish Fork and his somewhat of a cowboy. He has taught at WL for 29 years. He is known for his "Concern of the Week" on our MTV program. Because WL students have been so disrespectful and awful this year, he is retiring mid-year to be a SUB!!! A SUB!!!)

Anyway, he comes in, blows his gym-teacher whistle and gets my students' attention to sit down and shut up. He went on to lecture them about their behavior. His lecture almost brought me to tears. First, he asked them how they would feel if they were in my shoes today. They all said they would feel awful. Then, he explained that the reason why I am a teacher is because "It's not about her, it's about you. She wants to see you succeed."

Next, he told a story of one of the other worst years at WL. It was in the 80's and at that point, WL was ruled by, not gang bangers, but cowboys. These cowboys used to chew tobacco and spit it where ever they pleased. He explained that it was a big problem. Then he said that even though they had that problem, those cowboys, with their hats, boots, and buckles, were the most respectuful group of students. He said they worked hard, they "busted their guts" to work for a teacher and said "thank you" to teachers daily. He said that he'd take the cowboys back with their spitting problem any day over the kind of crap students at WL now try to get away with. He basically called them all out on being rude, disrespectful, lazy, and technology dependent.

He ended by having each and every one of them come up to apologize to me individually before they left. I think he had a profound effect on some of those kids. I hope so, anyway. He stayed in my room another 20 minutes giving me some advice and encouragement. I wonder how 7th period will be tomorrow.

We are having our Faculty Christmas social tomorrow after school. I am taking a salad. It should be pretty fun.

TG it's almost F!