You have not lived until you've called a young man's father and asked him to speak with his son about giving his friends "nurples" in the hallway.
That's how my day ended.
I'll admit- this whole day was one for the books. The only reason I have the energy to write is because I'm lying down and my brain won't stop. And this speech-to-text app is fairly accurate. #lazy
Fridays always start early. I have duty in the auditorium before school, which means that I get to patrol all of the 6th graders as they trickle in and gather. All 200 of them gather together in the auditorium and try to break as many rules as possible. Or at least that's what it feels like. It's almost spring break, and kids still think that they can sneak their skateboards into their lockers without me noticing, and that it is proper behavior to throw people's belongings across the room. It's basically me against the entire 6th grade, which seems a bit unfair. The only redeeming element is that Fridays are jeans days.
My classes went fairly smoothly, until the end of 5th hour, which is directly before lunch. While everyone was lining up, a fight broke out between a few of my students. It wasn't a full out brawl, but several kids were involved in a few punches were thrown. I marched them down to the lunch room to get their food and took them to the office. It just so happened that the assistant principal wasn't in the office, so I spent the last five minutes of my lunch "break" babysitting three terrified, sulking boys.
Earlier in the day I'd been asked to cover for an eighth grade math class during my plan and guided study, so I headed straight over to the room to find a nice, sweet 8th grade class. For a minute, I even had a breakthrough with a kid on a concept that I hadn't practiced in 5+ years. It wasn't half bad. The kids even said I explained one concept better than their teacher did!!
Then 7th hour came in. Within the first three minutes, I heard multiple students call themselves and their class dumb and stupid. Obviously I'd found the low, unmotivated class. And the talkative class. And the disrespectful class. It was rough.
There is something terrifying about subsituting. You only have them for an hour, and in that hour, you are no doubt going to be lied to and manipulated. Even though I'm a teacher, I dread it. You're not there long enough to build a relationship, so it's usually just a constant power struggle. Procedures are a guessing game. You can record their behavior, but they will not be dealt with until later. At one point, one of my 6th graders, who is an office aide, brought a note to the door. I was so relieved to see him. Even though he is a headache in my class, he is one of MINE- unlike the strangers I was in charge of. (I'm going to have a rough time letting this group move on to 7th grade!)
By the end of the day I was so glad to be back in the 6th grade hall. I know I could fall in love with 8th grade if I had them for a month or two, but there is something pretty special about 6th graders. Especially mine.
Now if only they would quit giving each other nurples!
-Mrs. Combs
