Week two of placement comes to a close. Last week felt kind of like a whirlwind. I was getting used to the class, to the students, to teaching subjects I haven't taken since high school, to teaching things that I don't understand, to a new school. I felt it went by rather quickly. This week however, probably largely because I've been sick, time has crawled by. And dammit! I earned my Friday this week.
When I was retelling my day to my mom, she just sat, stunned at everything that happened today. She then asked if it was a full moon. I haven't looked out the window, but if it isn't, I'm terrified about what will happen when it does come.
Before lunch, I had a kid in the 2-3 class whip a marker down a flight of stairs, then run down screaming. The staircase echoes and he pissed off a few teachers. Woot. Following that incident, a couple of students drew crude drawings of one another. One got pissed off, he stormed up to the other kid and tried to strangle him. My AT got in the way, forcing him to adopt a new strategy: attempted punching. And between those two incidents, I got a stern talking to regarding a little girl who constantly wants to be holding my hand. Yes, this is the state of our society. Should she one day become angry with me and misrepresent that physical contact, my life could apparently be made miserable. All in all, a good morning.
Following lunch, the kids had their electives. My AT went skiing with a few kids. Because I value my life, I decided that bowling was a safer alternative. That meant that I was in class and watching the swimming and bowling students while we were waiting to leave. All of a sudden a grade eight from the other class pops up in the doorway and waves me out. He hadn't come to tell me Timmy was in the well, but he did tell me that another of my students was having an issue. I followed him upstairs and there was my student, looking rather miserable. He told me he didn't want to come back to class because everyone hated him. I asked why but got a garbled answer that I did not understand. Since I wasn't teaching anything, I told him he could stay with the other class so long as he came back to our class in time to copy his homework. Rather pleased with myself, I descended the stairs. I got to the landing and two of my students were sitting there. One of them was in tears. I asked her what was going on, sat with them and made her laugh, but that was about all the time I had. The drama had just started to unfold and the bus had arrived. I didn't understand teenagers when I was one. There's no way I'm going to understand them now. It took one of the other teachers about two hours to get the drama sorted with everyone.
At last we returned from bowling. No, my day wasn't over. I caught one of my students at her locker preparing to leave school. She was telling her friends to tell my AT that she'd received permission to go home. Whens he saw me coming, she told me the same story. Yeah... my AT wasn't there and I had a feeling that if the shit came down on this one, that it would come down on me. I politely asked her to accompany me to the office to double check with the principal. I was sure what she was asking me was against school policy but I played innocent. She's a cooperative kid anyway, but I didn't want to flat out accuse her of anything or be a grump about it. She told the principal what she told me and I was right! I WAS RIGHT! That was my pat on the head moment of the day. No one did pat me on the head but I imagined it for myself.
When I finally did get home, I sat, I watched movies, I read and I absolutely refused to watch Kindergarten Cop with my mom.
Hey, at least it's a long weekend... that's at least three days I won't have students requesting to hear me say "Turn to page 394" in an English accent. To all the English-accented people of the world, I am sorry and I'm suffering the consequences of mimicking you poorly. Please, accept my apology.
Lauren.
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