It's been a while since I've written anything, for a number of reasons.
1. The spring semester flew by much faster than the fall semester did (and it always does).
2. With the graduation project requirement in place, there were a large number of things I had to do that I hadn't ever done before, which made them take a lot longer than they should have.
3. I was lazy.
4. I was also working on buying a house, so the internet took a little bit of a side burner (except for my gaming...that could never be put aside, or my sanity would go with it).
However, now that summer is in full swing and I'm back from my journeys abroad, I have more time to reflect on things and to start to mentally prepare for the next school year. Mostly, this preparation involves suppressing the voices in my head that repeatedly tell me I'm crazy for being a teacher and putting up with the things the school throws at me (yes, I include 'students' in with the 'things' that get thrown at me). Sometimes, though, there are actual positive things that solidify my belief that teaching is for me, such as the following note from a student I had this past year:
i had an awesome yr with you! you are the best english teacher i have ever had! i just wanted to thank you for your great teaching! thank you!
Granted, I apparently failed to teach her about capitalization, but it's still really nice to get positive feedback from the kids and know that despite their whining and complaining in the classroom, they did get something out of their time with me. These are the things that teachers work for. We know that not every kid will like us, or even learn from us, but we do it for the ones that we can touch in some meaningful way.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
new students, new lols
Our new semester just started 2 weeks ago, so I have a brand new batch of kids to give me lol-worthy stuff.
This one is a response to the sermon by Jonathan Edwards called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The combination of bad spelling and interesting ways of putting things just made me giggle.
"I think that I would go crazy. There is no way I would have set there a liesoned to that preacher talk to me like that. It would have made me think that he thought he was above me and he was better then me. I would have goten mad. I would have liked it, but he is just like me. He puts his pants on the same way I do."
I did kind of lose him there in the middle, but the last line just made it necessary to post it. I wish they hadn't stopped testing kids on spelling. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what they mean. I assume "liesoned" means "listened" but one can never tell. This kid also mentioned the "surpants" that Edwards used in his comparisons...maybe that's why he talked about putting pants on in his reflection.
Another girl wrote, "I would've got up and left cause that man had done lost his mind." You've got to love the south, and kids' inability to realize they should not write the way they speak.
When I graded the same class's vocabulary assingment, I discovered that Papa Smurf is in my class. At least, he turned in a paper. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to figure out which kid is "Papa Smurf" so I won't bother to try. I just give zeros to the kids that didn't have a paper with their actual name on it.
This one is a response to the sermon by Jonathan Edwards called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The combination of bad spelling and interesting ways of putting things just made me giggle.
"I think that I would go crazy. There is no way I would have set there a liesoned to that preacher talk to me like that. It would have made me think that he thought he was above me and he was better then me. I would have goten mad. I would have liked it, but he is just like me. He puts his pants on the same way I do."
I did kind of lose him there in the middle, but the last line just made it necessary to post it. I wish they hadn't stopped testing kids on spelling. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what they mean. I assume "liesoned" means "listened" but one can never tell. This kid also mentioned the "surpants" that Edwards used in his comparisons...maybe that's why he talked about putting pants on in his reflection.
Another girl wrote, "I would've got up and left cause that man had done lost his mind." You've got to love the south, and kids' inability to realize they should not write the way they speak.
When I graded the same class's vocabulary assingment, I discovered that Papa Smurf is in my class. At least, he turned in a paper. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to figure out which kid is "Papa Smurf" so I won't bother to try. I just give zeros to the kids that didn't have a paper with their actual name on it.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
New Years Resolution
I'd be fooling myself if I tried to make a resolution saying I wouldn't procrastinate on my grading in 2009. I *should* make that resolution, since after not doing any work all break until yesterday, I spent 3 hours grading journals and quizzes yesterday, and I've spent three hours today grading classwork and late work. And I still have a stack of poetry explication from my Juniors and a set of essays from my seniors. The essays, at least, shouldn't take too long, since only about 2/3 of the class bothered to turn in an essay. Zeroes are easy to enter into the grade book.
It's been a while since I took the time to write in here, so I'll just offer up a few highlights that I can remember of things that I've learned from my students in the last half dozen weeks.
1. I had my students write a modernized version of "The Devil and Tom Walker" and let them re-title it if they so desired. One of them gave me a story titled "Satin and John Walker." That smooth, silky cloth will get you into trouble one day...
2. I have a student with 30+ missing assignments for the second 9 weeks. He wanted to wait until he had everything together to turn it into me, and gave it to me the Friday before break. He told me he spent hours making up all his work. Those 30 assignments somehow turned into about 6 worksheets and a packet, 1/2 of witch are from the first 9 weeks so they don't count for anything. Total change in his grade = about 5% points...which means he's still failing by a lot. Sweet kid...a little shy on the common sense.
3. I made an exception for a student whose mother came in to meet with me. I told her she could email me the outline that was due, and instead of getting it in before break, I just needed it before Christmas. Spent about 20 minutes with them after school, explaining exactly what was needed. Four days after Christmas, I get a call from the kid's tutor asking if all I was looking for in their draft was an outline or if I wanted an actual draft in addition to the outline (that I still haven't seen). It's a good thing my boyfriend was in the car with me when I received this phone call, or I might have just driven myself into a tree. Not that this kid would understand what that meant. Might be more effective to drive into her house, but a: I don't know where that is, and b: she's so dense I'd probably just bounce off of her anyway.
Anyway, back to grading, where I get to read "short paragraphs" about poems, which for most seem to be about 1 sentence long...
It's been a while since I took the time to write in here, so I'll just offer up a few highlights that I can remember of things that I've learned from my students in the last half dozen weeks.
1. I had my students write a modernized version of "The Devil and Tom Walker" and let them re-title it if they so desired. One of them gave me a story titled "Satin and John Walker." That smooth, silky cloth will get you into trouble one day...
2. I have a student with 30+ missing assignments for the second 9 weeks. He wanted to wait until he had everything together to turn it into me, and gave it to me the Friday before break. He told me he spent hours making up all his work. Those 30 assignments somehow turned into about 6 worksheets and a packet, 1/2 of witch are from the first 9 weeks so they don't count for anything. Total change in his grade = about 5% points...which means he's still failing by a lot. Sweet kid...a little shy on the common sense.
3. I made an exception for a student whose mother came in to meet with me. I told her she could email me the outline that was due, and instead of getting it in before break, I just needed it before Christmas. Spent about 20 minutes with them after school, explaining exactly what was needed. Four days after Christmas, I get a call from the kid's tutor asking if all I was looking for in their draft was an outline or if I wanted an actual draft in addition to the outline (that I still haven't seen). It's a good thing my boyfriend was in the car with me when I received this phone call, or I might have just driven myself into a tree. Not that this kid would understand what that meant. Might be more effective to drive into her house, but a: I don't know where that is, and b: she's so dense I'd probably just bounce off of her anyway.
Anyway, back to grading, where I get to read "short paragraphs" about poems, which for most seem to be about 1 sentence long...
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