I feel like week by week my days are getting more and more interesting. Yesterday I filled out my first ever “office referral”. One kid called another one a “black mother f***er”. I mean, seriously? What is wrong with kids these days? That’s what I would like to know. I mean, okay, I can’t sit here and say “Where do fifth graders learn this language??” Because I can distinctly remember using language very similar to that when I was in 5th grade. And while, yes, I am appalled by it now, and I can’t believe that kids are talking like that (they seem so young!) I am not going to be naïve and pretend like I didn’t know this was going on. But calling your classmate a “black mother f***er”?? Come on, you have to have more sense then that! Luckily enough (this is me attempting to find the silver lining in this situation), both students were African American, so it’s not like I had to deal with the whole racism bit. The thing is though, it’s not even that this kids said it. For one, he denied it all morning. He denied it to me, he denied it to the sub that was with me, and he denied it to his homeroom teacher (The principal came down this morning to let me know that he admitted it to her the second he walked into her office… excuse me while I let out a huge sigh of relief). And on top of denying it to everyone, he was as cocky as ever for the rest of the class. When they were lined up to leave I heard him say to someone “Boy, you don’t say no to me”. This was the first instance yesterday where I had the urge to go up to a student and say “Really? Who do you think you are?” These kids seem to think they’re really something, like the rule don’t apply to them and we owe them something because they’re here. I feel like telling these kids that we would be just fine if they weren’t in class, and the world would keep on spinning (in fact, we’d probably enjoy it). But clearly, I cannot say these things, so I just stand in the front with my mouth shut and keep on teaching like nothing happened.
Now, this happened first thing Tuesday morning. Moving on with my day, and we get to fourth grade. In that class, I asked a student to stop talking out in my class. She continued to talk out. After awhile, and countless reminders to stop talking out, I made a speech to the class about how I do not accept talking out in my classroom. Little Ms. Chats-a-lot responded with “This ain’t your classroom”, and she continued on mumbling under her breath about how she hates student teachers and just wants a real teacher, all the way out the door, where she smacked the sign that has the fire exits labeled and all the classrooms and said “See, it says Señ-or-a Ra-mir-ez”. At the end of the class I kindly reminded her that while yes, I may be a student teacher, I do have the authority to send home referrals, and I do expect to be treated with respect. She responded with “I don’t care”, and Señora Ramirez informed me later that it’s true, she doesn’t care, because her mother more than likely won’t care either. Well that’s just great. At the end of that class though I did have one student come up to me and say “I really like the way you teach, and I thought today’s lesson was great” J Yesss…. One point for me.
Really though, I have found that the toughest part about this all (well, besides classroom management…) is just getting in the right mindset for each class. Before it was easy peasy, because I just had 3rd grade so I was teaching the same thing over and over. Now I have 4th and 3rd, and starting Monday I will have 5th, and it’s so hard to switch between classes. I think it’s because I have gotten so used to 3rd grade, the material and the students, that I’m used to them. Then the fourth graders walk in and I’m like… oh shoot, I’m teaching something different, and I have to get my mind off of head, shoulders, knees, and toes, and onto transportation. It’s going to be even harder next week when I add 5th grade!
And I am now an experienced staff member. I had a 3 hour meeting on Friday during the early release, a staff meeting yesterday, and a FLES meeting today. I wish I could say the staff meetings were interesting, but I would be lying. On the early release it wasn’t too terrible, we had to do a project using a flip camera, and we numbered off so I was paired with some teachers I have never met before, and they were very nice J. I’m going to try to see if I can post our finished video on here somehow.
That’s all for now. I had to tape myself teaching 4th grade today, so who knows, maybe if it’s not completely terrible I’ll post that on here too J
¡Hasta Luego!
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