laughter

I know I complain a lot in my posts about bratty kids and the woes of being a junior high teacher. But truly, I am blessed. Blessed to have this job, blessed to have a place to live, clothes to wear, money to spend on things like random pedicures, movie rentals, and cheap pizza. God has placed me here for a reason, though I can't see it because I am a tiny ant in this universe. Some days it's hard for me to not to question why I am here in X, Texas, teaching this exact group of kids, this exact year. I dunno. I probably won't ever.

But I do know that sometimes God lights up my day when he let's laughter into my classroom. Usually in the form of me laughing at my kids, not with them. I crack myself up a lot. It's nice having that ability when you are the only adult you see for the majority of the day.

Like for instance, 7:50am. Standing in the hall greeting my babies as they walk through the door while simultaneously yelling at kids to take their hats off, get out of the bathroom, and pull their pants up, I look across the hall into Mrs. T's room and see two of my girls practicing their dance routine. One of their friends (a complete sweetheart who greets me every morning with a "How you doin Ms. Angry Teacher having a nice day?" all in one breath with this crazy accent) is dancing with them but obviously not in the routine with them. She is waving her arms and gyrating while the other two girls are badly dancing next to her, swaying their hips and rotating in a circle. They look absolutely ridiculous but don't know it. They think they are awesome...remember this is not even 8 in the morning. I started laughing and they saw me, I hope their feelings weren't hurt, but wow, it was definitely a sight to see.

Or my Trouble Maker # 2 acting like an old man. I am so thankful that a coworker pointed this out to me or I probably wouldn't be able to deal with the little turd. The kid sleeps in class, can't wake up, is always complaining about something, is super gripey,  and always has to pee. Just like my grandpa. Ha.

In our tutorial period, one of my kids who refuses to read his book or do homework is usually a pain in the ass, but last week he saw a spray bottle full of cleaner and paper towels at the front of the room. For some reason he started cleaning ALL the desks and chairs, the board, the cabinets, and the windows. He is this tiny little boy and he enlisted the help of the tallest, most mature boy in the classroom to help him. They were racing around the room spraying cleaner on other students' desks (while they were still seated in them) and just being plain silly. I don't know why it made me laugh so much, but I couldn't keep a huge grin off my face. Then the little cleaner asked for a tip so I gave him a penny. ha. cheap labor. mwhahaha

I know I know, these aren't that funny to you dear reader, but I work with what I got, and my students are all I have during the work week. But then, I also find the podcasts Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and CarTalk absolutely hilarious. 

There are jokers in almost all my classes, so I am usually entertained throughout the day when I'm not busy chastising them about homework or being tardy or trying to yell over the din of 20 fourteen year olds.

besides, I have only 32.5 days till this year is over and I plan to at least enjoy most of it. Why spend my work week waiting till the weekend to have fun when I could just decide to be happy and joyful at every moment?

-tha angry teacher

Friday!!!

For some reason, this week has been really short feeling and flew by. Even though I've been sick with a cold/flu that morphed into the beginnings of bronchitis, this week hasn't been terrible. But maybe it's because of the drama of last week with the kids-I'll explain in a minute-and run down with this sickness, I am SO happy today is Friday. I can't even imagine having to come to work one more day this week.

About the sexual harrassment last week. 13 year old boys were whistling at me when I walked down the hall. It wasn't the first time, it happened twice before.
If you are a woman who's been whistled at on the street or in the mall or Wal-Mart, you know the feeling of shame and disgust that accompanies the catcall. There's absolutely no compliment in catcalling or whistling at a strange woman. OK if you are in a relationship with her and it is between the two of you-like she is ready for a date with you and she looks amazing, whatever, you can whistle at her. But NOT a stranger walking by.

Therefore, being whistled at by pubescent boys while at work while I'm wearing dumpy clothing was too much. I haven't been that angry in awhile, so that's why I cried. I cry when I'm pissed, usually not when I'm sad. In addition to being pissed, I was also upset because I know that I can't control what the boys do. I can send them to ISS or even suspend them for harrassment, but it doesn't change their behaviors.

I stopped wearing makeup for the week because I'm suddenly hyper-aware of my appearence and I'm afraid that I'm the one who is at fault for looking too cute while at school.

I now cannot walk into the ISS room for fear that comments will be made by the boys in there.

I now peak around the corner of the hallway to make sure there are no boys at the end of the hall waiting to get themselves in trouble.

It pisses me off that their actions have affected me so much and that I have to watch my back constantly.

So yep, I am absolutely positively excited that tomorrow is Saturday. I do have to run 6.5 miles in my half marathon training plan and I am nervous...wish me luck!

-tha angry teacher

sexual harassment in the workplace

This is what I am experiencing this week. Except that it is coming from 13 year and 14 year old boys which means...

a) this is disgusting, ack ack ack yuck yuck yuck
b) I am emotionally unstable right now. I mean, I cried this morning over this...and I don't cry often. I think the last time I cried...I seriously can't remember.
c) a person can be totally surprised at juveniles' behavior even after working with them for 1.5 years. It is still a shock to me. You would think by now I wouldn't even bat an eyelash.
d)I am considering wearing a head to toe cloak to school the rest of the year. Or go shopping at Goodwill and buy the ugliest dresses and pants I can find.


-thaangryteacher

tardy reasons.

my favorite might just be "hair"

Longest Week Ever

I'm not sure why exactly, I can't pinpoint a single thing that has turned this into the longest week, but it has been. Last week flew by like a hijacked speed boat. This week, a snail crawling slowly along a hot sidewalk with a crack in its shell.

(way to go on using similes and metaphors)

One of my worst students isn't even in my class; he's in alternative school for a month.
Yet, yet...I just can't get back into the routine of waking up at 5:45am every morning since the Christmas holiday. I don't wake up till 10am, which is two classes into the day...oh my poor poor first period class. They suffered this week.

I am excited for a THREE DAY WEEKEND! woot woot
and I'm excited to teach something I didn't teach last year, Lewis Carrol's Jabberwocky. It should be a great little activity to get my kids thinking about grammar-something I absolutely hate. Honestly, I teach Reading, not Grammar so I don't know all the parts of a sentence or the difference between complex/simple/confklad sentences and simple/complex/subjunctive/farteinds sentences....

So I can learn with the kids!!!!!!hahaha that makes me a horrible English teacher...but I promise other than grammar, I know my shit, I swear!


have a lovely weekend,

thaangryteacher

Things I’ve Learned To Deal With

1.      Students, with 7 years of education under their belts, still don’t know the difference between “their”, “they’re” and, “there”. They also don’t know what “don’t” stands for.

2.      Constantly being outsmarted by 13 year olds. Yesterday I found out that 3 of my girls have been skipping my UIL class for the past two months. I felt about as smart as an earthworm knowing that children out maneuvered me for so long.

3.      Kids don’t do their homework. Never. Oh yeah, there are those 2 or 3 that have it everyday, but the majority “are too busy” watching TV and eating supper. Because eating dinner usually takes 5 hours.

4.      Laziness.

5.      Tardies. These used to not bother me at all, but this year I have a first period class and I have 4 students who are consistently tardy. It is annoying. They don’t usually disrupt anyone, it is the principle of the matter though.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a month. I have to post entries from work because my home internet is SO SLOW that it can't run blogger. How sad.

I had a great break, and guess what? I'm running a half marathon in May! So excited!

-thaangryteacher

Book List!

GIFT IDEAS!!!

The Hunger Games Trilogy- I read these last year and didn't like them as much as these past couple weeks when I've re-read them. Very good! Lots of action, love, rebellion against the man, and drama!

Travels with Charley- John Steinbeck. My favorite book of all time perhaps. I love Steinbeck's fiction works, but something about this book, non-fiction, really captured my attention and makes me want to roadtrip!

The Book Thief-Markus Zusak I read this book randomly because my friend had it with her on a trip to NOLA. It was the only book in the car, so I started reading and couldn't stop. It's set during the Holocaust in Germany and rather sad, but I love how the narrator is Death.

For teen girls:
Matched - Ally Condie. Sort of similar to The Giver in that there is a society in the future that controls everything the people do, including marriage. Girls will love the romance in this book. There really isn't much else, it's a pretty fluff book.

Any book by Sarah Dessen. I feel in love with her writing back in junior high, and now, my junior high girls check her books out more than other things I have on my shelf.

for boys:
Stormbreaker/Alex Rider chronicles: I've only read the first one, but it was great! There was lots of action and a great plot to follow along. I have plenty of girls in my classes that love this series as well.


that's all!

-thanagryteacher

ps: I apologized to the girl. She is so quiet that I can't tell if she forgave me or not. I swear I've only heard her talk once. maybe. (except not during the debate)

where've you been?

I've been busy..ish
Mostly I haven't blogged in 15 days because the internet at my house is so slow that it won't upload the blogger site! So I have to blog from other places, like work...;)

Lately I've turned into a mean teacher. Like, making-kids-cry-mean-teacher. The first time it happened, about 2 weeks ago, omg that sounds so awful to say "first" time and it is, it was unintentional, and the boy took a flippant comment from me and turned it around to where I was insulting his family. It didn't help that he is having family problems. I apologized to the best that I could knowing that I had done wrong but not intentionally.

But yesterday, oh yesterday, I snapped at a girl for talking during a debate. The reason I was so mean to her was because during her debate, she barely said anything because she is extremely shy.

This was the comment I made to her: "Look Sally, you can't talk because you didn't talk during your turn, so you definitely don't get to talk now!"
Imagine that half-yelled in your face....it was bad. Technically she didn't cry, but omg I felt(and rightly so) like a complete bitch for saying that to her. I mean, I am a shy person myself!!In front of a class, I can talk all day, but around a group of peers, I barely make a peep.

So today I am going to beg her forgiveness and I pray pray pray she doesn't hate me all year.

No justification at all.

Right after that happened, I was walking to the restroom when a lovely group of 7 or 8 boys saw me and when I walked back down my hall (so my ass was towards them), they whistled. OH BOY. I was pissed. Seriously?Seriously? 13 year old children whistling at a grown woman?
I wasn't going to say anything until they whistled about 5 times (and the hall is looong, so I was a good 50 yards from them) and I turned around and marched all the way down that hall (I even heard a panicked whisper, "oh she's turning around!") and gave those fools a piece of my mind about treating ladies correctly and harassment. oh, sometimes, it's OK to be mean. Like then, well, they needed to be yelled at. That was stress relief!

tomorrow, book suggestions

-thaangryteacher

something totally different

I have definitely been an angry teacher this week. My 4th day of no caffeine. I don't know why I decided to give it up, the choice was completely random.

OH my poor poor babies. They have suffered my wrath. But then, they have been total sh**heads this week too. I chewed them out yesterday, saying how lazy, disrespectful, rude, and uncooperative they all are.

about my break:
I did have an amazing thanksgiving despite my initial concerns. Usually family get togethers are strained and tense. But I got to see my beautiful nephew for the first time, and see my brother and his wife since a year +.  and I also hung out for 4 hours with my best friends in the entire world and I already miss their faces.


back to teaching:
It is so hard being a "nice" teacher without losing respect. Some of my classes really click with me and we get along fine, even on bad days. But a couple of my classes, well, really just 4th period takes a lot of my energy out of me. Plus the whole Re-do thing really got to me today. I felt like I was back at waitressing in college where you have 1000000 million things going on at once. I was a bit frazzled to say the least.

something totally different:
I am re-reading Eat, Pray, Love for the second time, and I love it just as much as the first time I read it. She inspired me to take up meditation again. I used to meditate a lot more, nowadays, I rarely do even though I have the time. So I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier today, woke up and wrapped up in my blanket on my bed and meditated for 15 minutes. It was a little hard because I'm out of practice, but refreshing. I highly suggest you learn some meditation techniques if you don't know any. An "easy" mantra is "Ham, So" or "so, hum" the ham is your in breath, the so is your out breath. it means I am that, that I am

simple and encompassing at the same time.


that's all!

and I have another dinner date with the girls this week! I'm baking something, I just don't know what yet. I bought pumpkin, chocolate chips and molasses. I know that with that combo, I can make anything delicious. I'm excited!

-tha angry teacher (for real)

"Redo" Explained...basics

I guess I could finally explain our Redo Policy at the school.

Basically, all students have to achieve an 80 or above on ALL assignments except final exams and Benchmarks given by the state. If a student is in Advanced classes, like mine, they must get a 90 or above on their work.

For example, Johnny does a quiz and gets a grade of 56, then he will go to “Lunch Bunch” the next day. During Lunch Bunch, Johnny will re-attempt the quiz. At the end of the day, the paper is given back to the teacher to grade and hopefully Johnny made at least an 80. But he didn’t. So he goes again to Lunch Bunch the next day again. This time he makes a 94.

Now, if Johnny’s second day in Lunch Bunch wasn’t successful, he would have to go to Encore. Encore is basically academic ISS. The kid is pulled from all regular classes that day until he/she can finish the assignment with an 80+ grade.

The 94 is the grade that goes in the gradebook. But if Johnny were an overachiever, he could redo all his assignments and tests until he got 100s on everything.

In theory, it is a perfect idea. In practice, it takes months to figure out the kinks. This is our second year of Redo at the school and compared to last year, it is so much better. Last year’s Redo sucked. Kids never went to Lunch Bunch and the ladies who ran LB didn’t know who was supposed to show up and who wasn’t.

This year we started a List on Google Docs that the teachers update everyday or every hour if necessary. So all the teachers in the school know if any student is missing work.

We don’t let kids get away with “forgetting” their homework and receiving a zero: the easy way out. We don’t take off 10 points for no heading. We don’t give extra credit for bringing 10 cans for the food drive. We don’t have free 100s for taking Mom or Dad to Parent Nite.

The kids HAVE to earn their grades here.

Of course there are many kinks in the system still. When I need kids pulled for Encore, it usually doesn’t happen soon, and the students that are going through Redo for the second time around (they were 7^th graders last year, so all 8^th graders this year) are seeing that this is the way to really get under teachers and admins’ skins. Don’t work.

One of my Trio has even been kicked out of Lunch Bunch because he refuses to work.  

That’s it in a gist. It is super time consuming for us teachers, a lot of paperwork, and usually a headache trying to organize redos, but worth it for the kids. Their grades are better, they are forced to understand the material covered in classes, and the program won us a national award this past spring.

TGIF…..payday and a week holiday next week! Everyone have a GREAT Holiday!

-thaangryteacher

I've got a problem...three actually

I haven’t written in a week + because well, I don’t know, but I’m going to make up for it by posting every day this week! What-what??

 Like most teachers, I have a few problem children. And like most teachers, they are in the same class period together. That makes for a long 55 minutes.

But, compared to last year, I still consider myself blessed with my students. Even those three boys have something I like about them, even if I dislike most of their antics. I have the feeling that outside of the classroom, they wouldn’t be completely awful teenagers to be around.

The main problem is that none of the Trio like to work. They sit, they talk, they eat candy, they stare at the ceiling, they giggle across the room at each other, they do ANYTHING they can to not work in class. I’m not offended because I know this happens in other teacher’s rooms as well with them. The members of the Trio are prone to ISS(in school suspension), going to the principal’s office, or being yelled at by teachers.

It’s actually sort of amusing to see how thirteen year old boys can get under grown women and mens’ skins. Sorta. Like when it’s not my classroom that they are being brats in.

I didn’t mention, but these boys aren’t really even friends. They don’t hang out together or seem to be anything other than acquaintances outside the classroom. But man, when you get them together in a 40 sq foot area, hell breaks loose.

I’m more worried about them than I am angry. I’m frustrated that they just don’t give a shit about anything. When I pulled Troublemaker # 1 into the hall yesterday to ask him why he wasn’t working, the only response I received was: “Meh” “grunt” *shoulder shrug* *lip smack* 

What is going to happen to these boys if they can’t find life interesting or open up with what they are struggling with? I’m super concerned about them, and it feels like there’s nothing I can do.

-tha angry teacher

Anger Isn't Productive

Yesterday I had a rough day.

I was placed in the shoes of my students by some overbearing coworkers.

This is how the situation went down…

We have a thing called Re-Do at our school. I will have to do a whole separate post or two on that topic…well I’m innocently eating my lunch- homemade chili-and the Redo aid (she’s not even a teacher) storms into the lounge with her hands thrown up(seriously) and asks pretty rudely, “So are you going to send any work [for your students]??”

I guilty jump out of my chair and mutter an apologetic “Oh, yes!” and rush to my classroom to retrieve the work for my students.

I say a prayer ‘cause I am pretty pissed at this lady for being such a bitch to me…unfortunately, the prayer didn’t change my heart like it should have and I walked into the Library, shoot the woman a death glance, and hand the papers out to my kids. I did apologize to the other woman who runs the Redo, but when I walked out of the Library, Bitch walked past me and I completely ignored her.

I felt exactly, exactly like a small child who was chastised by mommy and was now sulking and giving mommy an attitude.

So wrong.

Second incident (same day, two hours later): The counselor calls me up asking for some scantrons that I sent down LAST THURSDAY because I wanted them in on time, actually a little bit early.

“Ms. Angryteacher, you are our holdout, you are the only one we haven’t received the scantrons from.”

I replied with the aforementioned statement but added, “I did send them down to your box with a trustworthy student.”

She paused, “Maybe the kid thought the other counselor’s box, let me go check.” Five minutes later lo and behold, that’s exactly what my “trustworthy” students had done.

Counselor’s parting words over the telephone, a frazzled and admonishing, “Don’t ever send a child down with completed scantrons!!” Click.

Again! I’m getting in trouble again!! Ahh, I felt like a naughty child being yelled at by their teacher! I almost cried (okay, maybe I’m PMS too..)

Later when I saw her, I was abrupt and had a bad attitude. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the receiving side of a lecture; I’m usually the one giving lectures nowdays.

Lesson learned: Yeah, we are human, and we are going to be frustrated with other people, especially kids who are rude, stupid, stubborn, troublemakers, tardy, etc. but yelling or even worse, being condescending doesn’t help. Our natural reaction is to become defensive and pissed off.

And you never know when a kid just got in trouble in  another teacher’s class. What happens when you also get on to them about something, even if it’s very important? Most likely, the kid will be angrier than normal and resent you for days/weeks/ months to come.

What your mouths is all I’m trying to say.

-thaangryteacher

How to Conduct a Proper Parent Conference

No, this is not a parent conference based on my lack of proper dress last week…

It’s just that I have a student, let’s call her Tasha, that has an attitude problem and a laziness problem. She is one of my Pre-AP students, and well, laziness is not an option in advanced English.

I’ve outlined the steps to a great/successful parent-teacher conference below.

1.      Make sure you have documentation of some sort about the child’s behavior/grades/attitude in class. This could be positive or negative remarks, copies of their work, and a printed out grade book.

2.      Call parents, duh.

3.      Politely inform them of their child’s strengths, then go on to rant about how awful and disrespectful the brat is and question the mom/dad’s parenting skills. Okay, DON’T do that. Instead, use a very concerned voice, describe in detail the problem, calmly, politely, and with as less of a condescending tone as possible. This is the critical time when you can either make an enemy of the parent or a comrade.

4.      Schedule a time that works for both you and the parent, and the student. You are going to want to bring the child in so that you can have a face to face chat with all parties.

5.      During the conference, sit at a student’s desk instead of behind your big imposing scary teacher desk. Make parents comfortable and try not to be rude or angry. Hopefully, THEY won’t be angry/rude either.

6.      Your discussion with the parents should basically repeat what you said on the phone to start with. Also, please remember that some parents don’t have all their brain cells, therefore cut them some slack, like when they say things such as, “Well, I try to make him do homework, but he just goes on home and firs’ thing his on tha xbox playin fer 2 'ours”

Obviously the lovely parents are part of the problem.

Also, you have to mention something positive about the kid, no matter what. Lie through your teeth if you must. In Tasha's case, she is actually a very intelligent girl, and I told her parents that straight up. 

7.   This is a must, you MUST have a conversation about how the student will improve, otherwise what’s the freaking point of the conference? Make sure you document what the parents said and what the solution to the problem was.

8.      Say bye, and hope that possibly, the kid gets a spanking when they get home, not an extra hour on the X-Box. 

Tasha’s conference turned out really well, I had two other teachers in the room with me, Tasha’s mom, mom’s boyfriend, and Tasha herself. The parents were super supportive and told me that her attitude would be very different than what it is now. So far, since Monday, it has been.

I also heard today that Tasha’s behind was sore on Tuesday because she got a spanking. Ha, I laughed when I heard that. I sound mean don’t I?

I am the angry teacher after all.

Parent Nite

I thought it would be a GREAT idea to go to the gym after work, do a short HIIT workout (I'm talking 20 minutes max) and then dash back to school for Parent-Teacher Night. HAHA

I'm laughing at my own stupidity.

3:45 PM bell rings, students leave, I rush to lounge to eat a quick snack

4:00 PM Photography Club starts (which I and another teacher sponsor)

4:45 PM Club meeting ends. It is announced that report cards are in our boxes to be picked up for tonight. Leave to gym thinking there will be plenty of time to pick up report cards later because no parent is EVER on time anyways

4:55 PM arrive at gym, change and hit the treadmill

5:23 PM change back into professional clothes, except for a decent shirt. I'm still wearing a tank top and my sweater is IN MY CLASSROOM. Shit.

5:30 PM I walk into the building, innocently assuming that no normal parent is going to show up exactly when Parent-Teacher Night is supposed to begin. I'm wrong.

5:31 PM Realize I have a dad and son waiting to pick up a report card for their son/brother. They seem shocked as me that I am in a tight tank top doing my best to hide my tattoo.

5:32 PM Realize I don't even have the report cards in my room.

5:33 PM Grab my sweater,get dressed decently, and rush down the hall looking completely paniced, red in the face, sweat still clinging to my hair to get the RC from my box

5:35 PM When I get back to my classroom, TWO MORE parents are waiting for me. what the hell? Who asked you to be on time? Not me!

5:45 PM Another teacher asks if I'm alright. Know that they will talk about me behind my back tomorrow.

6:30 PM Go home and expect to be asked tomorrow by students about tattoos and expect phone calls from concerned parents about teachers who are indecently dressed.


-tha angry teacher

"Facebook"

I love my little darlings, especially when they do things like this.

 <---- I love that they even added a "Chat" log...how cute

Lesson Plan on Symbolism

Here's a lesson on symbolism:

Day one: introduce the definition and concept of symbols. give examples. discuss other symbols in life that students might know. ex: colors, flowers, sun, darkness, light, olive tree, dove, water, white flag, American flag...etc

Students must then create a symbol than represents their self. They can't use a sports ball because that's easy/boring. Yep, I tell them to their face that it's boring.

They get the rest of the class period to draw their symbol and write a paragraph telling me what the symbol is and why they chose it.

Day Two: finish drawings/paragraphs

Day three: present to class, clap, say "Oh how nice." and "Yes, your smiley face is beautiful. I see you copied it from a magazine..." and yada yada

Okay that was all prep so that when we read The Giver next quarter, I can ask about symbolism in the novel and what those objects/actions/people represent. With my advanced kids, it's possible to have a lengthy discussion on different symbols. With the lower level learners, it's not. They get the idea but not the purpose or idea behind symbolism. Wow, again that sounds...cruel? If anyone knows different ways to teach symbolism, please, please let me know.

on accomodations in the classroom

As teachers, we have students in every class (even Advanced classes) that have learning disabilities, dyslexia, emotion problems than interfere with school, and mental illnesses. It's a struggle to plan lessons that differentiate between low level students and high performing students. Thank God that this year I have less of a problem with this because 3 of my 5 classes are Pre-AP and the other two are "Regular".

Last year, my first year of teaching (as they say in East Texas, "God Bless my Soul"), I had high, high students in the same class period as my lowest low kids. That was a hard class. Ugh I pretty much hated them...the rotten little stinkers...and they knew it. I have reasons though, and back to lesson planning for such different intelligence levels; there was no way that I could plan a lesson that would interact with the "smart" students and keep them engaged while also reaching the "low" students so they could understand what the hell I was talking about. Chaos ensued. My smartie pants kids caused trouble so I had to chastise them which took time away from the low kids who could have used that 5-10 minutes for themselves.

As teachers, we are supposed to differentiate lessons.
Here's what differentiation is:
"Differentiated instruction is a teaching theory based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in classrooms (Tomlinson, 2001). The model of differentiated instruction requires teachers to be flexible in their approach to teaching and adjust the curriculum and presentation of information to learners rather than expecting students to modify themselves for the curriculum." (source)
Being a public school teacher, achieving success with this is terribly difficult. Limited resources, limited time, limited brain cells (mine/theirs).

That class I mentioned had about 8-10 "GT" students, 8 were "average", and 5ish were accommodated, special ed, or dyslexic.
ALL in the same room, the same 45 minutes.

Talk about difficult lesson planning! My high students were bored and my low students were stumped.

There are ways to scaffold lessons, mainly I did this by group work, and lots of it.
The high kids helped the low kids, etc.
I also modified tests, verbally reviewed lessons, and rephrased questions for my low kids.

Actually getting "higher learning levels" into their brains? Um, nope. I did my best though and I taught "average"lessons so that everyone understood.

Yes, the GT kids acted out cause of boredom but what I focused on was my low learners. They often had to struggle to understand, but that is exactly what I wanted.
I mean, if I didn't lift heavier weights every time I exercised, would I get stronger? In the same way, they must exercise their brains. I don't keep my class stagnant.

-tha angry teacher

Thoreau Thursday # 6

"The evil that men do lives after them."
-Henry David Thoreau

Every Thursday I give my kids a journal entry in which they have to respond to a quote by Thoreau. Mostly they are baffled (poor illiterate souls, God bless 'em) but today they had some good ideas to respnd with.

For instance, most kdis agreed but a few disagreed and here's why: If you tell a lie it won't affect people who live after you. If you smoke a cigarette once (as I'm typing this, two boys are going to jail for smoking pot in the bleachers today...how cliche) nothing will happen to other people because of it.

One of  the "agree" kids said that "people don't often realize what they say affects others so much"

Words of wisdom if I've ever heard any.

-tha angry teacher

so it's 1/4 into the school year...

I wanted to start blogging about my teaching year this August, promptly, when school first began, when I was living in summer-freedom bliss.

Then I forgot, and...now I've remembered.

I'm staring at a kid right now who brought a yellow balloon to class with a weird ass face painted on it. He named it "Retard". Don't you just love fourteen year olds?

I'm assuming this blog will be about the misadventures of lesson planning, teaching, and trying to fit in my random hobbies of working out, baking, music, photography, creating art, and hopefully learning Spanish (again).

A little bit about me:

This is my second year of teaching.

I teach 8th Grade English as well as Pre-AP English(first year teaching this).

I have about 100 students.

The town I live in is small, with only a Wal-Mart and Home Depot. But OMG a lady just opened a Thai Restaurant. OMG.

I love to workout. Major de-stresser. I just began lifting weights at a local gym using The New Rules of Weightlifting for Women. I love it for the most part.

I eat strange vegetarian things. And fish and sometimes occasionally chicken. I LOVE greek yogurt, nut butters, oatmeal, and apples. Don't get me started on apples.

I'm writing this in my classroom as my kids take an exam. I guess that's a "bad teacher" thing to do.


Okay, enough for now, I need to get back to erm, work...


-tha angry teacher