Frustrated

For the last 7 yrs I have worked to reach a goal. The goal was to be a teacher. I honestly feel this is what I am meant to do. Now I am not so sure. My mentor tells me it is not me, that it is this certain group of students and they do this to every teacher. But, I am wondering if this is so. Everything I do is questioned, every time I follow the school's discipline policy the student(s) argue with me. Am I being fair? Am I singling certain students out? Certain students do not care if they get an infraction. In fact, some look at it like a badge of honor. Some how I naively believed that students would see how much I love to teach and they would respond positively to me and respect me. That was sooo wrong. Students do not care and what is worse, their parents do not care. All the behaviors parents do not deal with at home are showing up at school and teachers have to deal with the bad behavior parents ignore. Maybe you can ignore when your child speaks disrespectfully to you but as a teacher I can not. I can't ignore that your child is bullying another student. I can't ignore the inappropriate comments your son/daughter makes in class. I can't ignore it when your child disrupts class and the learning of other students. I had one student actually say he was going to tell his mama on me and she would come up there and talk to me. I replied, please tell your mama, I would love to speak to her and explain to her how her son keeps disrupting class and is bothering other students who come to class and chose to learn. I am so thankful for my mentor. She has backed me in everything and has had a few "conversations" with pre ap class who think they know everything. I am sooo ready to be done but then I stop and think....can I really do this? can I really make a difference?

Latest News from the Middle School

This has been a very interesting week in the jh. I have had the hardest time with my 2 Pre Ap classes. So, during our team time I discussed this with the other teachers. The science teacher said I should do what he does. He usually starts this at the beginning of the year but I figured it was worth a try. I started by just watching the students and waiting til they stopped talking, which took about 10 mins. I then ( in my best southern drawl) I told them I needed to apoligize to them because I did not explain to them what my expectations were and I then preceeded to tell what they were. My expectations is for them to be in their seats , be quiet, and wait for instructions. I then told them we needed to practice how we should enter a classroom. They all got up and walked out the door into the hallway. As each one passed by me to enter the room I said to them: "go in, sit it, be quiet, and wait for instructions". Imagine doing that for 35 kids and having to practice this about 3-4xs. If one person laughed or made a comment after entering the room, I stopped and made the whole class do it again. It took about 3-4xs then they started turning on each other. Which was quite funny! I have proceeded to do this with my other AP class and my regular classes. They are still learning and we are still practicing but it is getting better. I am bound and determined to get this classroom managment under control. I think my 3rd period did have the record of 6xs today before they got it. I thought this sounded funny and wasn't sure it would work. But it does and behavior is getting better.

It's been awhile..

This teaching/working thing is really starting to interfere with my blogging and FBing.. How do people do it all? Things are going well. Last week was rough. Whit had to have surgery and have all parts of her stimulator taken out due to infection. Also, on the same day my UTA mentor was coming out to do my evaluation for this placement. I felt horrible that I could not be with Whitney but thankfully my mom could be. She even spent the night with me. My eval did not go well. The students did not listen and acted like I was not even there. So now my mentor was very concerned about this and how I was handling it. Oh wait! I forgot to mention we moved during the week before to a larger house but we moved on the weekend when it snowed. So, with all these things combined I had a mini breakdown with my mentor. Thankfully she listened and told me to pull up my big girl panties and be the teacher she knew I could be! She also told my teacher to get out of the way and let me go...Which she did and I am happy to say I was able to step up and be the teacher I know I can be. I had to get tough and let them know I meant business. Now, don't get me wrong, I still have problems with repeat offenders but my classes are under control and I always give them a choice. So far so good. Of course, I have 2 Pre AP classes and one contains 2 students who are driving me crazy! These guys ask some of the most ridiculous questions and then when I give them an answer they want to argue with me.. I swear one of these students actually thinks he is smarter than me! lol! Ok, I will admit..he just might be! lol! But I will NEVER let them know that! I don't feel to bad though because they do the same thing to my teacher.... I did get my grad announcements though!! Now I just have to finish my time in 8th grade, pass my PPR, and get my portfolio together ( which is due May 7th). Guess I had better get busy and round up all my papers, lesson plans, evaluations and anything else I have to put on a disk...But, right now I'm going to relax, enjoy the knowledge the week is over and that I have survived middle school again for another week...Oh wait! I forgot to mention the principle casually walked into my 6th per. yesterday and took a seat and opened his laptop..I was so nervous and this class is weird. But after class he came up and patted me on the back and said good job! I'm hoping that was a good thing! Now it's on to filling out more applications(which take forever). I'm not going to stress over getting a job...Heavenly Father has gotten me this far and he will carry me all the way and I know he has a job picked out just for me!! Later!