Okay. The week from hell. Where to begin.
Disclaimer: This is only ONE week in countless many that are NOT hellish. That being said, anyone who is considering a career teaching in an under-funded urban school should skip this entry.
Ill start this off by telling you that I had a breakdown at work today. Somehow I ended up in the back room of the front office at school, crying hysterically, while the head secretary and head of guidance hugged me and tried to calm me down. I was mortified. What kind of asshole cries at work??? Im not big on the whole crying in public thing as it is (except after watching Brokeback Mountain in the theater: I mean come on! The shirt!! The shirt!!). But I digress.
Tuesday one of my students died. I had him in class a few years ago as a freshman, and while he certainly turned the screws on my patience quite a few times, we ended up having a pretty good relationship. Last year, after he took MCAS, the state test required for graduation, he sought me out and thanked me. Yes, THANKED me: a teenager! He told me that it was because of me that he passed the exam. It was one of those rare moments you only see in some idealized yay-for-education movies starring Edward James Almos or something. I told him that he had made my week. The truth is, it made my year. So when I heard of his death, I was quite upset. The first person I ran into Wednesday morning was a colleague of mine, who I knew had known him. I expected we would share a moment of grief and remembrance, but instead, she began ranting about what an ass the kid was during preparation for the Shakespeare production she had advised earlier in the year. Then she even alluded to the fact that he deserved to die: he had been skipping school and had gone to a local watering hole to swim Tuesday. A strong undercurrent pulled him under the water and he drowned. Needless to say, I walked away from my colleague feeling even more horrible.
Later that day, some of the students on the Yearbook staff were particularly rude to me. The head advisor is retiring and has been grooming me this year to take over for him. Of course, one of my jobs a few months ago was to decide which students would return to the staff the following year. I decided not to bring one girl back because she spent the year doing her nails and wandering the hallways, looking for a boyfriend, instead of working on the book. Since the publication is not only a club but a credit class in Photojournalism, I thought it only fair to eliminate the dead weight. Of course, her friends on the staff did not agree with me, and now they have decided that they will be as uncooperative as possible. That day, it was the last straw. I went down to my department chairperson and told her I would not be advising the book next year.
Today, in my rounds monitoring the hallways during weekly Activity period (when the kids get to attend clubs or stay in their homerooms and do homework), I came across a posse of girls wandering the back hallways. I told them to get to their destinations. They mouthed off to me. I asked for one girl in particulars name, as she had put up her hand to me as if to tell me to get out of her face. She refused to tell me her name or show me the school ID. I followed her into the gymnasium, where about 40 students were hanging out on the bleachers (unsupervised). I told her to come with me. She not only gave me the hand again, but told me to shut the hell up and that she doesnt talk to trash. Her friends, meanwhile, climbed onto the bleachers and began heckling me. I asked one particularly loud girl if she wanted to join her friend (in trouble). She said, Dont MAKE me come down there and made a motion to suggest she would hit me if she came down there to me. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this (and no, Im not exaggerating: 10 minutes of a group of kids yelling threats and various rude comments at me) a police officer arrived. The school employs police to intervene in dangerous or illegal activities at the school. He said to girl #1, Ok, lets go. Come down here. The girl replied with why? I have a pass. Im staying. The police officer, who by the way, I have never seen before at the school and must be new, said to me, Does she have to go? I said, Yes, I need her to leave RIGHT NOW. He then turned to me, in front of the pack of kids, and said, Listen, dont talk to me that way (???) and proceeded to lead the girl away to God knows where. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack continued to yell various obscenities at me and laughed. I walked to the main office, waiting for the officer to escort the girl there. He didnt arrive.
At the main office, an assistant principal arrived. He asked me what had happened, and I told him, but he seemed not to be listening and kept saying, yeah, yeah yeah. I walked out of his office feeling like a complete moron. Thats when I broke down. I began crying hysterically and was whisked away to the back room by the secretaries. The next period, as I walked to my last class, I saw the girl. She smiled and pointed at me, then said to a nearby group, Ha! THATS the English teacher I cussed out! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Just a sucky week. Although, I did have one bright spot, and its probably why I didnt start typing up my resume in preparation for a new career as soon as I came home. When I walked into my last period class, my eyes and nose were still red from crying, and my students said nothing about it, but behaved like angels. A few of them even spontaneously told me that they loved me. And on the way out, they all said goodbye and wished me a good weekend. So I guess, all in all, the good spots like that outweigh the bad. Thats why Ill be back tomorrow.
I apologize for not surfing the journals. I just needed to get this out, and now I am taking a nap. Its either a nap or many excessively-large alcoholic drinks, and since I still have correcting to do, its probably better I choose the former. Oh but PS: yes, escottie, your girlfriend IS pretty hot.
Disclaimer: This is only ONE week in countless many that are NOT hellish. That being said, anyone who is considering a career teaching in an under-funded urban school should skip this entry.
Ill start this off by telling you that I had a breakdown at work today. Somehow I ended up in the back room of the front office at school, crying hysterically, while the head secretary and head of guidance hugged me and tried to calm me down. I was mortified. What kind of asshole cries at work??? Im not big on the whole crying in public thing as it is (except after watching Brokeback Mountain in the theater: I mean come on! The shirt!! The shirt!!). But I digress.
Tuesday one of my students died. I had him in class a few years ago as a freshman, and while he certainly turned the screws on my patience quite a few times, we ended up having a pretty good relationship. Last year, after he took MCAS, the state test required for graduation, he sought me out and thanked me. Yes, THANKED me: a teenager! He told me that it was because of me that he passed the exam. It was one of those rare moments you only see in some idealized yay-for-education movies starring Edward James Almos or something. I told him that he had made my week. The truth is, it made my year. So when I heard of his death, I was quite upset. The first person I ran into Wednesday morning was a colleague of mine, who I knew had known him. I expected we would share a moment of grief and remembrance, but instead, she began ranting about what an ass the kid was during preparation for the Shakespeare production she had advised earlier in the year. Then she even alluded to the fact that he deserved to die: he had been skipping school and had gone to a local watering hole to swim Tuesday. A strong undercurrent pulled him under the water and he drowned. Needless to say, I walked away from my colleague feeling even more horrible.
Later that day, some of the students on the Yearbook staff were particularly rude to me. The head advisor is retiring and has been grooming me this year to take over for him. Of course, one of my jobs a few months ago was to decide which students would return to the staff the following year. I decided not to bring one girl back because she spent the year doing her nails and wandering the hallways, looking for a boyfriend, instead of working on the book. Since the publication is not only a club but a credit class in Photojournalism, I thought it only fair to eliminate the dead weight. Of course, her friends on the staff did not agree with me, and now they have decided that they will be as uncooperative as possible. That day, it was the last straw. I went down to my department chairperson and told her I would not be advising the book next year.
Today, in my rounds monitoring the hallways during weekly Activity period (when the kids get to attend clubs or stay in their homerooms and do homework), I came across a posse of girls wandering the back hallways. I told them to get to their destinations. They mouthed off to me. I asked for one girl in particulars name, as she had put up her hand to me as if to tell me to get out of her face. She refused to tell me her name or show me the school ID. I followed her into the gymnasium, where about 40 students were hanging out on the bleachers (unsupervised). I told her to come with me. She not only gave me the hand again, but told me to shut the hell up and that she doesnt talk to trash. Her friends, meanwhile, climbed onto the bleachers and began heckling me. I asked one particularly loud girl if she wanted to join her friend (in trouble). She said, Dont MAKE me come down there and made a motion to suggest she would hit me if she came down there to me. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this (and no, Im not exaggerating: 10 minutes of a group of kids yelling threats and various rude comments at me) a police officer arrived. The school employs police to intervene in dangerous or illegal activities at the school. He said to girl #1, Ok, lets go. Come down here. The girl replied with why? I have a pass. Im staying. The police officer, who by the way, I have never seen before at the school and must be new, said to me, Does she have to go? I said, Yes, I need her to leave RIGHT NOW. He then turned to me, in front of the pack of kids, and said, Listen, dont talk to me that way (???) and proceeded to lead the girl away to God knows where. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack continued to yell various obscenities at me and laughed. I walked to the main office, waiting for the officer to escort the girl there. He didnt arrive.
At the main office, an assistant principal arrived. He asked me what had happened, and I told him, but he seemed not to be listening and kept saying, yeah, yeah yeah. I walked out of his office feeling like a complete moron. Thats when I broke down. I began crying hysterically and was whisked away to the back room by the secretaries. The next period, as I walked to my last class, I saw the girl. She smiled and pointed at me, then said to a nearby group, Ha! THATS the English teacher I cussed out! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Just a sucky week. Although, I did have one bright spot, and its probably why I didnt start typing up my resume in preparation for a new career as soon as I came home. When I walked into my last period class, my eyes and nose were still red from crying, and my students said nothing about it, but behaved like angels. A few of them even spontaneously told me that they loved me. And on the way out, they all said goodbye and wished me a good weekend. So I guess, all in all, the good spots like that outweigh the bad. Thats why Ill be back tomorrow.
I apologize for not surfing the journals. I just needed to get this out, and now I am taking a nap. Its either a nap or many excessively-large alcoholic drinks, and since I still have correcting to do, its probably better I choose the former. Oh but PS: yes, escottie, your girlfriend IS pretty hot.
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
dammit it does. well the rest of that word is masturbate. hahahaha.