Let's Talk Transition...

The transition specialist came to speak to my kids today during our resource period.  I'm not quite sure whether or not she felt she got anywhere with them...

Transition Specialist: "What type of job do you think someone who likes to work with their hands would do?"

Student: "Find dead bodies."

Transition Specialist: "..."

Yeah.  Happy Friday.

Goal Incomplete.

Well I didn't reach my goal of enjoying my job today.

Two of my closest friends at work decided to apply elsewhere because they no longer want to work for my district.  They'll be gone and happier at a different district by the end of the school year.  Awesome.

Then one of my students, who we'll call LockUp, told his technology teacher to "Suck my c*ck!" and then, later on in the day, called my tutor a "b*tch" after she had asked him to return to his seat.  I then learned that the reason why LockUp is on probation is because he was arrested for and charged with grand larceny as an adult, after stealing a car.  If he violates his probation, he is looking at a maximum of four years in jail.  So why, do you ask, is he in a public school and not in some sort of alternative program?  I have no idea.

I have no tips for today.  I'm just exhausted and overwhelmed.  I don't know how I'm going to survive this year...

A REAL HIGH FIVE?!

Throughout today I had two different students tell me that they hated me.  But, after having a heart to heart with each of them about what was really going on in their teenage angst ridden lives, they admitted that I was their favorite teacher.  Ha!  I win again.

Also, the behavior point sheets are working like a freakin' miracle with Howie!  He has been absolutely perfect for 3 days straight.  He also actually made CONTACT with my hand during a high five today.  Usually we do air high fives because he doesn't like touching other peoples' hands.  But today, he was so excited with how well he had done, that he gave me an actual high five while screaming about how good he was.  It was awesome.  Today was pretty much the best day I've had since the school year started.

My goal for tomorrow is to try to enjoy my job again.  We'll see how that goes.

New Teacher Tip Of The Day: Let your kids know that you care about them, they'll respond in ways you wouldn't expect.

This Pencil Isn't Sharp Enough...

While in the middle of a meeting today, I got a phone call from one of the technology teachers who stated, "I have Howie down here and he is refusing to do his work.  He just threw the worksheet I gave him onto the ground and then ripped it up... with his feet."  Awesome way to start my morning.  So I had him send Howie down to me.  Once he arrived at my office, I asked him what had happened.  He explained that the work that was given to him was too difficult, so he blew it off of his desk and then ripped it up with his feet.  Never touched it once with his hands.  Impressive.  So I went over the alternatives to his reactions and explained how he should have raised his hand and asked for help blah, blah, blah...

So at the conclusion of my small lecture, I decided that it'd probably be best for Howie if I put him onto a behavior point sheet.  I then let him know that if he earns enough points for good behavior, he'll be rewarded with computer time during our resource period.  He got all excited and exclaimed, "Hey I know!  How about I start doing my work now then?"  Great!  So we got some assignments together and he began working.  The only problem was that he likes to use pencils.  But he can only write with a pencil when the tip is as sharp as humanly possible.  So every few minutes or so, he got up, walked over to the electric pencil sharpener and sharpened his pencil.  After about 20 minutes, he asked me for a new pencil because this is what it looked like... after only 20 minutes:

Needless to say, #4 on his behavior checklist is: "Sharpened pencil no more than two times during the class period."

New Teacher Tip Of The Day: Behavior point sheets are your friend.

**SIDE NOTE**

Open House was tonight and I met Howie's mother... everything about him made sense the second I spotted her and she began to speak... I'll just leave it at that...

Apparently I Look Like A Homeless Person... But Only While I Work...

Last week I told Shoelace that if he promised to take his medication for ADHD on Monday, I would go to his church's softball tournament on Saturday.  He agreed and made me pinky promise him I'd be there on Saturday.  (I never break my pinky promises!)  So when Saturday morning came around, I rolled out of bed and dragged my fiancee with me to the park to watch him play.  When we arrived, we realized that we were #1 the only white people and #2 the only people there who did not speak Spanish.  Even the announcer over the loud speakers was announcing every play in Spanish!  We both felt totally out of our element, but we ended up having so much fun!  It was really cool to see how Shoelace interacted outside of school with members of his family and church.  He was also so excited to see that I had actually showed up to see his game.  His team ended up losing (pretty miserably), but I could tell that he had a lot of fun and that he really appreciated that we had actually gone.

So today, when I saw Shoelace first period, he thanked me again for going to his game over the weekend and then asked me why I dress so nice when I'm out of work.  Confused, I asked him what he meant.  He replied, "Miss, you looked so pretty at my game and you had on nice clothes.  But here at school you come to work wearing that stuff [points to my work clothes] and you look like a bum."

When I went to Shoelace's game, I literally rolled out of bed, climbed in my car, and bought a cup of coffee to look somewhat alive.  I was wearing leggings, boots, a giant t-shirt, and a hoodie.  I also hadn't showered and my hair was a hot mess, so I wore a baseball cap.  Today at work, I was wearing gray slacks, a nice black sweater, and my hair was pulled back.  But according to Shoelace, I looked like a bum!!!

So on top of unintentionally insulting me, he ended up being too distracted at home this morning to remember to take his meds.  So he was off the wall all day long.  Needless to say, it was exhausting.

New Teacher Tip Of The Day:  You can't always rely on your students to keep their promises, but you have to make sure to never break the ones that you make.  For many students, you are the only adult in their life that they know they can count on.

Journal Entry:

I have my students journal for 10 minutes at the beginning of each of our resource periods.  I then read their entries and respond back to them in their journals.  They never cease to amaze me...

In response to my question, How are you liking high school so far?:

"Is good you feel me
I like the fat girls out there I like
when they bitchy
I like when they look like rasputtia I think
they're so freaking sexy"

I'm so pleased to hear that he is enjoying his time with us so far.  Oh and just in case you aren't familiar with who Rasputia is, here's a picture for you:

Things That Actual Students Have Said To Me This Week:

"B*tch, who do you think you're talking to?!"

"I'll sit down... after I finish my conversation."

"I'm not being disrespectful... I'm being rude.  There's a difference."

"Shut up!"

We had all been told that this year's ninth graders were going to be a tough group, but these kids really have taken it to a whole new level.  We even prepared for this year by creating an alternative team for the students who we knew, based on the data we received from the middle school, were going to be a problem.  The quotes that I just gave to you were said by students who weren't "bad" enough to make it onto the alternative team.  So yeah.  This is going to be a long year.  Maybe even longer than last year...