The tough stuff

Today, I read about a school shooting that took place in Chardon, Ohio.  Apparently (I apologize if my information is off, the articles are constantly being updated) someone who I'm assuming was a student stood up in the cafeteria and started shooting.  When I saw the reports this morning, 5 students had been injured, but as of now two have passed away as a result.  And to make it even more real, one of my friends at school is from that area; her brother is a senior at the affected school (he's alright by the way).

This is the type of situation that no one can prepare you for.  I read that two teachers chased the gunman out of the school, and I have no doubts that their reactions prevented more injuries/casualties.  I don't know what the other faculty did, but I'm sure each member of that school community tried to do what they could, whether it was keeping students safe in lock down or evacuating them to a nearby elementary school.

No matter what events have happened in the past, no one is ready to deal with a school shooting when it happens.  And even if the situation is dissolved with as little physical damage is possible, there's still the emotional scars that are left behind.  This is one of those events that scares me not only because it can happen anywhere, but because it's something that you can't predict no matter what you read, learn, or study in school.

I'm not saying that I'm afraid to teach because of what might happen; that's life.  But I can't help but wonder what could have happened to set this person off?

I honestly don't know who reads this blog, but I'm asking that anyone who does keep this community in your thoughts and prayers.

Review woes

Since my students have a chapter test next week, they started review today after their quiz.  And, because we're always trying to keep things interesting, we had them playing charades with the vocabulary words.  And, as expected, a few got into it and most wanted nothing to do with it (heaven forbid, they might look silly in from of their peers).

I was surprised, however, to see how many teenage girls were willing to lay on a dirty classroom floor once they were dragged to the front of the room in order to portray the word for "sunbathing."  They were some the funniest because the motivation (total embarrassment and uncoolness) for not acting out the word at all became the motivation for doing the most accurate charade they could so that someone would guess more quickly, thus ending their uncoolness.

But there still were those who refused to participate.  They got up to the front of the room, whined, and said they didn't know what to do, thinking that would get them out of the game.  You can imagine their disappointment when they discovered they had to stand up there pouting until they participated.

All in all once they got into it (and discovered that we only had time for about 5 minutes) it ended up being good for them, and they were even spitting out words they learned the previous year which is always a good thing.

And the slacker award goes to...

Once again, I find myself apologizing for not posting in a while.  I'm torn between thinking that my schedule is really that hectic, or thinking that my time management needs tweaking.  Since this is a crazy semester for me, I'm going to say the former even though I'm sure it's a combination of the two.

Moving along, today is my first official day off from teaching!  It's Presidents' Day which means the High School is off today (us college kids didn't come out so well since we still had classes, but luckily I came out on the good side and didn't have any other classes today).  So although I most definitely can't use today to do nothing but catch up on napping and Youtube videos, it's infinitely better because the alarm wasn't going off at 5am.

I sincerely hope my students used their long weekend to sleep and blow off steam, however.  I don't know if I was oversensitive, stressed, or what when I taught on Friday, but a lot of the students were in fine form by way of giving the student teacher a hard time.  I had one try to tell me how to teach, another making a snide remark about my being a magician when I erased the SMARTBoard, and the rest either wanted to just sit and stare at me or not stop chatting for five seconds.  One little Judy Attitudy, upon my asking why he wasn't writing, told me that he didn't need to take notes; he memorized them.

I also gave them their grades on presentations I had them do.  They were out of 12 points, and if they followed my directions (they each had to say 3 commands for example), it would have been simple to get full credit.  I didn't even make them memorize it, all they had to do was read their papers (which I had given them time to work on the day before they presented).  And boy were they upset.  But the odd thing was, the students I expected to get mad (the ones who got 8 or less) didn't say anything and those who got 10 or 11 out of 12 were on me like rockets, demanding to know why they got points off.

And they were incredibly rude about it.

There were no, "can I ask you about my grade?" or "I don't understand why..."Nothing like that.  I was prepared after first period for the reactions but that first class took me by surprise.  One boy was so outraged that he stomped out of the room ripping up his rubric (he was also one of the boys who refused to work when I gave them the opportunity, blew off the presentation, and received the grade he had earned).  But my co-op did tell me later that grades like these are tough and the students almost always react this way, justified or not.  She also reminded me that these are the types of situations that I have to just roll off my back, since many students are still under the impression that doing little or no work should still warrant an A.

I'm hoping that, like me, the students just needed a day to breathe.  And maybe this means that they're more comfortable around me, since they're willing to come up to me now for pretty much anything instead of just wondering who I am and why I'm there every day.  Either way, I hope I figure it out soon...

They're having a substitute on Friday, and I'm teaching.

Short blog is short.

I'm soo sorry I haven't posted in a while, these two weeks are pretty much my busiest so far.  So instead of a big post about my lesson today (fantastic) or the Valentine's Day activity they did (also fantastic, will come at a later date), I'm just going to pose a question.

I have a methods night class once a week, the theory equivalent to the methods class I took last year.  Is it wrong that I leave there frustrated and questioning what I'm being taught?  I mean, a seasoned professional with a whole lot of experience and research to back it up is teaching us, shouldn't I be tripping over myself to try and learn everything I can instead of wondering about the legitimacy of the data?

Don't breathe on me!!

Everyone is sick.  A good chunk of my friends at school are living off of soup and coughing everywhere, and today 99 students were absent from the high school.  My co-op told me that's about an eighth of student body that is either out sick or enjoying an impromptu three day weekend.

I find myself using hand sanitizer like I'm being paid and keeping everyone at arms length (literally), because I know getting sick would be one of the worst things to happen during this semester.  There's so much going on that I just can't afford to lose any time sleeping afternoons away and working at half speed.

So here's to antibacterial soap, vitamin C, and hoping I stay healthy until Spring Break!

What they don't tell you in teacher school

So today in first period we had a really strong gas smell.  Not headache causing craziness, just enough to cause confusion.  The whole language wing of the school smelled like a broken Bunsen burner.  We kept teaching, but another teacher came in and asked if we smelled it too, while a student who showed up late mentioned that they were talking about it in the office.  It was enough where I half expected the school to send us outside, but they never did.  Later I found out that it was just our section of the school; a girl I know who also is doing her field there said they couldn't smell anything.  So we just opened the windows and moved on (after figuring out if it helped more to keep the door open or shut.  Turns out it didn't really matter).

It wasn't too bad though, other than the obvious annoyance of the smell.  Jokes were cracked and the kids seemed in good spirits.

The calm lasted about 10 minutes.

Then the whining started, along with the complaints of headaches, not being able to stand it anymore, and, my personal favorite, the Oh My Gosh If We Don't Get Out Of Here We're All Going To Die.  These were funny for about 3 seconds, but they got old really quickly.  It really wasn't that bad.  I wanted to tell the little sweethearts that no, you're not going to die, if you were we'd probably have left already.  But we just shushed them and moved on with our activity, which included some partner competition which magically seemed to make the headaches go away.

Since it wasn't a huge crisis, it wasn't terrible and it was a good experience to have.  However, I started wondering about what I would have done had I been there alone, along with thinking about all the other possible situations no one prepares you for.  My co-op contributed some stories of her own, so at least if I get a situation about highlighter attacks or tampon throwing (I kid you not), I'll know how someone else handled it.

But still, I'm a little anxious to see what they throw at me in the future...