A Winter Wonderland
We've been getting some winter weather lately, which we're not quite accustomed to around here. It's gotten to the point that the last two days the students have been showing up disgruntled. According to them, it's not fair that they have to travel to school in such conditions. I'm not exactly sure what they mean about that. If you think it's too dangerous, then don't come. That's fine. It happens. Just don't waste my time by going on and on about it. Certainly don't let it cut into all the other complaints of unfairness, like:
Testing on stuff that they have read
Not being able to wear hot pants
Being counted tardy, when showing up two minutes late
Not giving 10 bonus points, in addition to the 10 already given
"Ratting" on them to their parents when they are failing
Taking off for spelling
The teacher not being "cool"
It turns out that today a bunch of kids had the same thought that I did and just didn't show up. I must admit that it was somewhat nice not to have 36 kids crammed into my 1st period this morning. For some reason the kids just aren't as focused when doing an impression of rush hour subway traffic in downtown Tokyo. Hhmm...
Apparently, the fewer the students the less noise there is too. I think it's because no one has to shout over the persistent shouting that usually exists.
"Did you do last night's health study guide!"
"Yeah!"
"Can I see it?!"
That’s code for, "Can I copy it?" by the way. Oh, then there's this auditory blessing.
"Then she took my cell phone!"
"She can't do that!"
"She better hope my ringtone doesn't get changed!"
Add a little bit of someone singing the latest Akon song and you've got your typical background noise, but there was none of that today. Sure there was singing, cheating and the threatening of lives, but it was in hush tones. There was even enough time to do what every "I've lost touch with reality" teaching guru advises and I worked one on one with each student.
If there was ever the time for the district to take one of those propagandistic photos for the website, then today would be it.
Testing on stuff that they have read
Not being able to wear hot pants
Being counted tardy, when showing up two minutes late
Not giving 10 bonus points, in addition to the 10 already given
"Ratting" on them to their parents when they are failing
Taking off for spelling
The teacher not being "cool"
It turns out that today a bunch of kids had the same thought that I did and just didn't show up. I must admit that it was somewhat nice not to have 36 kids crammed into my 1st period this morning. For some reason the kids just aren't as focused when doing an impression of rush hour subway traffic in downtown Tokyo. Hhmm...
Apparently, the fewer the students the less noise there is too. I think it's because no one has to shout over the persistent shouting that usually exists.
"Did you do last night's health study guide!"
"Yeah!"
"Can I see it?!"
That’s code for, "Can I copy it?" by the way. Oh, then there's this auditory blessing.
"Then she took my cell phone!"
"She can't do that!"
"She better hope my ringtone doesn't get changed!"
Add a little bit of someone singing the latest Akon song and you've got your typical background noise, but there was none of that today. Sure there was singing, cheating and the threatening of lives, but it was in hush tones. There was even enough time to do what every "I've lost touch with reality" teaching guru advises and I worked one on one with each student.
If there was ever the time for the district to take one of those propagandistic photos for the website, then today would be it.
- H.T. at 1:28 PM
