School Daze

Things I've learned so far. . .

Don't have your students write an example of a metaphor that starts with this: My teacher is a/an _____________. You never know what you will get.
One of my male students has the biggest crush on me and calls me Ms. Beautiful. His response: My teacher is a Hot Tea. My teacher is a ten. Wow, can I say uncomfortable.

On the first day of school I had two pregnant students (10th graders) and several with kids. At the open house, not only did I get to meet parents, but I met one of my student's one year old son. I should be used to this, but it still surprises me every year. I mean, seriously I don't even have kids yet.

Peer pressure is fully in force. - I set up a deal, per se, with my students the first week of school. If I caught them with their cell phone out I would take it from them. If they give it to me quickly without saying a word, like "no miss", "please, miss, I'll put it away", etc. then I would give it back to them at the end of the class period. If they didn't give it to me without fuss, then they wouldn't get it back, and I would take it to their assistant principal (AP), that means they won't get it back until Thursday when their parents paid $15 to pick it up. Okay, so now that I've set up the background, here is the story. I caught a student with his cell phone out. He was being difficult about giving it to me, so I told him his AP would be receiving it from me. He refused to give it to me, which means he gets sent to his AP where they will take it from him. The other students in the class pipe up "Don't give it to her. The AP's won't take it. They'll just suspend you for two days." What? Are you kidding me? And surprise, the kid listens to them. He was suspended for the next two days. The best is that this all happened on a Tuesday, so he would have gotten it back in two days anyway. Is your phone really worth two days of suspension?

Counselors think they know better than you. To make it short, a brand new counselor did not believe me about a student being placed incorrectly in my remedial reading class. He had passed the reading state exam, but failed the writing portion, which means a reading class is no help to him. The new counselor takes it to the lead counselor, not believing me, who then tells the principal that I am kicking kids out of my class just because I didn't want them in there. I was livid for two days. I turned to my district specialists and my assistant principal and by the end of the second day I won. Don't treat me like I'm an idiot. I know more about my class than some new counselor. I was so shocked at the lack of professionalism the counselors showed.

Well, sorry they aren't the most entertaining stories yet. But never fear, with my students there are bound to be some exciting ones soon.