I know.  Bad blogger.  It’s hard having two “houses” and trying to maintain the both of them.

So, answer my question.  December?  So, why in December is the parent of a student I had last year bitching about their kid failing my class, among others, and demanding grades changed?  No, you read right.  Parent claims he had no idea because nobody contacted him.  Sent the letter straight to the superintendent.  What a load of crap.

It’s this type of crap that solidifies the fact that parents should have a license and keep up their certification every year.

Irritated.

Dear Auto Shop Teacher,

While I understand that many of the students that take your “class” will ultimately need those skills the most, my class is still a state requirement to graduate.  With that in mind, do not send your students to my class forty minutes late because they were finishing up a project.  When the bell rings, they belong to me as does their grade.

I did not change the absence to tardy so that student will show up on the cut list.  When administration asks me if the boy was in class, I can not wait to put a *wrench* into your ignorance.  Ho ho ho!  A pun from the English teacher.

Look it up asshole.

I just go an email from a sophomore of whom I had last year.  She is not really a good writer and sadly had the teacher from hell in grade eight and the English teacher with no degree last year.  She asked me if I could read a paper and help her with her thesis statement since the other two teachers were horrible and since I am an English teacher and was the other 8th grade teacher.  Would I please plllleeeeeeassse help her.

Normally I would jump and down, but this girl is so hard to read.  Except when I heard her in the hallway drop some crap about me.  Sure, she was a freshman and I am an adult.  Let it go.  It’s hard when a teacher tries to help a kid and open themselves to them only to find it’s not appreciated.

So, I responded to the email with a resounding, “SURE!!” because I am an adult, teacher and a fooking sucker.

Last year the other teacher who teaches my course did a unit on banned books.  It spawned a very angry parent about a book her child was reading. It got really out of hand.  This year, since both teams were aligning with one another, I said I didn’t want to do the banned books unit, but rather teach To Kill a M*ckingbird early and discuss banned books in general.  Banned books are not even in our curriculum, but it’s one of those things were someone has done something for so long, it’s their thing.

The unit ended today and I made it out unscathed…until two minutes ago.  I just got an email from a parent PISSED about a book I “assigned her child”.  Why would I require such a traumatic book to be read and to please send all of the reads this year to her so she can select altenative reads.

I explained it was a banned book unit and that books were taken from our library.  I also explained that while I would not censor or ban books, I told the kids that their parents could.  They were the final say.  I also told her that if a student was disturbed or did not want to read their book anymore due to content, they were more than welcome to change it.  I am still awaiting the response.

It just pisses me off that I KNEW this unit was shitty and that of course it would bite me in the ass, they always do.  I wanted to say, “It’s not my unit and I didn’t want to do it, but they made me.  I agree, the book sucks….yadda yadda.”

Only me.

I don’t have time to screw around with misbehavior.  I’ve been putting up with it for the last few weeks with one particular boy and patiently waited to see if it would clear up when the workload got heavier.  No such luck.  So, I called Mom at work on her cell phone and had a pleasant talk.  I told her that her son was rude, disrespectful and arrogant.  I told her he was a distraction to those that wanted to work and it was such a shame because he is a bright kid who will fall into failure mode if he didn’t clear up his act.

Well, someone is grounded and runs the risk of mom removing him from the football team.

Sorry dude, it had to be done.  Sometimes you have to run someone under the bus.

Honk honk!

I had a student today reading the student handbook while we were reading chapter four in our novel out loud.  He had the handbook on top of the novel, his hand on his chin and we just flipping through the pages like he was at the beach.  So, I did what any teacher would do.  When the student before him finished their passage, I asked him to take over.  Without even looking up, he said in the most pompous tone, “No thank you.”  I just looked at him and said, “fine, please put the other book away and pay attention.”  He gave me that “fuck you” pompous ass look and I quietly glared and said, “Please stay af-ter-class.”

He stayed after and I said, that it wasn’t about his not reading out loud, but rather his not paying attention.  “I.don’t.read.” was his reply.

“OK, but you will be respectful, that is my issue.”

Again with the look.  I told him I did not want to call home as that was not my intent, but if the attitude continued, I would.  Again with that look and arrogant shrug of the shoulders.  So, I told him I would call home and I did.  Unfortunately, Mom was not home and I left a message.

She called back and you will never guess what happened.  Oh come on.  Guess.

“My son doesn’t like to read and the issue is that you picked on him and THAT’S why he was rude.  That is how he is.”

O.K.

She had him switched from our class today.

My heart is breaking.  Not.  I feel for the other team, but when the kid gets a job in the real world and tells his boss that he doesn’t do whatever is asked of him.  The boss will fire him.

He sure showed me didn’t he?

I wanted to give myself enough time to see how things were going and if I should complain or not.

The kids are wonderful.  Definitely a bright spot after the horrid class of 2011!

My new co-teacher…what can I say.  He’s a nice kid, but is driving me up a wall.  He is a space invader.  This means he follows me around the room as I teach, stands so close to me when I talk to the class, he touches me and will stand behind me at my desk, which happens to be against the wall.  There is barely enough room for me back there, let alone him.  I was told to let it go since he is young.  Frankly, that has nothing to do with age.  That’s just bizarre.  Honestly.

I am concerned because he doesn’t do any planning and solely relies on the other SS teacher to give him anything.  I gave him a world history book over the summer and I am pretty sure he didn’t read it.  He often asks me what I am doing and what I am doing has no relevance to what HE should be doing.  I’ve already had two days where he has told me that he didn’t plan anything and I can have teh entire period.  I have been teaching for thirteen years and still plan and research new things every night.  For the schedule we have as teachers, the time we are in school should be used to work our asses off and NOT hope the other guy will cover your ass.

I think today he sensed my disgust because he didn’t say good bye to me.  I feel badly because I want to get along with him, but it’s not my job to tell him his job.  Why our new teachers do not have mentors is beyond me.  I can’t mentor him.  I work with him.

So, that’s where I am at right now.  I just wish that one year I get to work with someone who knows what he/she is doing.  This is my fifth year with someone new or clueless and I am at my wits end.

GO!!

School starts Monday for teachers.  I have done nothing really to prepare.  I did hit Staples today.  I am the head advisor for the Freshmen class, so I have a lot going on this year.

Now that school is in session, I hope to be posting more here.

I have been a blad blogger over here.  School ended on Wednesday.  I had one day off and today I have to go back for a *summit* that will reconfigure the class I teach.  It will be very helpful, but I just don’t have it in me to go.  I am going, I just don’t have it in me. LOL  Then I am off for one day and Sunday I have to report and register to a week long conference I signed up for two months ago.  There are four of us attending from my building and they don’t seem thrilled either.  I pretty much got cajoled into going.  It’s one of those conferences where people from all over the country attend and sleep there, but since it’s ten minutes from here, the four of us aren’t going.  I am sure we will be made to stay late every night as a punishment.

When things slow down, I will post about the end of the school year.  It was fascinating, to say the least.

We are on a one week break and I am heading out of dodge.  This is the first year in a really long time when I just needed to be out of the building.  It was unhealthy in so many ways.  Headed to where the skies are blue, the ocean bluer and my mood NOT!

Woot!