christmas break commences.
i find out the day before school starts for second semester that i am pregnant. as the weeks go by, i am more freaked and feeling shitty...but hey, i am still teaching. the kids, however, have stopped learning. and i say this in all sincerity...i know that i was not the BEST teacher from Jan-Mar this year...i do recognize that i could have done a better job HOWEVER COMMA, i have taken an unofficial poll from my colleagues across the building and all concur that the kids' attitudes, work ethics, and overall general demeanor completely sucked donkey balls from the start of second semester this year. i accept my blame, but for some reason, they do not accept there's.
here's where the fun starts.
students refuse to do work. students get zeros. mommy calls and tells teacher that her pregnancy hormones are the reason student is not passing. teacher gives student opportunity to redo and turn in make up work for partial credit. student does not. administrator tells teacher(s) to offer make up opportunities even though opportunities have been given. SERIOUSLY?????? this is rigor in the classroom?
i just spent the better half of today arguing with 16 year olds about how they cannot EXEMPT the entire project due at the end of the year only the presentation. (oh yeah, students can exempt exams based on their absences... so if you have 2 absences and a C in my class, guess what? you don't have to take my exam...is this the real world?)
not to mention that they can not follow along on a sheet of paper that is copied front to back. THEY ARE CONFUSED. want to know the best part...I TEACH COLLEGE PREP!!!!
i know that all jobs have there problems and the grass isn't always greener...and yeah, i get that i get a summer vacation (so don't even go there)...but every day i see the world through the eyes of teenagers unable to make any real, competent decisions. i used to be able to reach them...i don't think i've made a difference in any of the kids lives' i've taught in two years...
i don't know how much longer i can do this.
My mom taught at private high schools for about a decade, and this year, because she got remarried and moved, she started a job at a public high school. It's supposed to be one of the best ones in the area, but her students' work ethic sucks the same donkey balls you were talking about. I've told her many times that she's teaching in a monkey house, after she tells me stories about her students. She's had multiple problems with plagiarism in her computer science classes and WAYYYY too many discipline problems to count in her Algebra I classes. Somehow, her students have no idea how to be students. I really really hope this isn't indicative of what our country is going to look like in 30 or 40 years when they're all in charge... there must be bright spots out there, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you're having such a rough time. I know it's pushing my mom into part-time teaching next year because she can't handle doing it full-time, and it's driven more than one of my friends to run screaming from teaching altogether. Yikes. I'm even sorrier that you're not getting any administrative support. That would be the worst part to me, if I felt like the people I was reporting to had no desire to push the students to do better and simply wanted to meet them at their level. Hugs to you, my pregnant but very rational friend. =)
Hey big sis,
ReplyDeleteAs long as I have known you, you have been creative and persistant. You'll find a way to make this work. AOT.
you have made a difference in mine :)
ReplyDeleteYou've made a difference in my life!! I'm in school to do what you did! So please don't think you left Catholic not changing anyone's life, because you changed mine. In a great way. You are the best teacher I've ever had. I miss you!
ReplyDelete-Alvarez