Last Day

I took a lot of pictures of my kids today. Leave a comment with an email address and I'll be more than willing to share them with you, but I probably ought not to post them in such a public place.

So close

Terrified that next year might not be any better. I'm going to have to work my ass off this summer to make sure that it will be. Now I just have to get my seniors through this exam and out the door. I hope they make it. One or two might not, which is really hard for me. And hard for them too, I'm sure. I've spent so much time working with them, trying to get them caught up, making sure they make up work. I've stayed after school, met them at McDonald's on Saturday mornings, at Tabbs on weeknights with a platter of sweet potato fries, during my planning period, during homeroom. I just hope it's enough. I don't like having so much power.

My favorite announcement of the year

Please pardon the interruption. Some of you have been very disrespectful to your teachers lately. If you are disrespectful to your teachers, I'll send you home. If you are disrespectful to your fellow students, I'll send you home. If you are disrespectful to any of the staff, I'll send you home. I just gave out 20 days at the house. I've got a stack of referrals and a new box of pens, and I will send you home.

(Students: Man, Ms. Principal come back crazier than ever. She'll do it too, she be sending people home for nothing)

Pardon the interruption again. Seniors: you have not graduated yet. If you think you don't have to follow the rules any more, I'll give you some days at the house too, and you won't graduate. You are not certified yet, and if you decide you don't have to follow school procedures any more, I'll send you home.

I paraphrase, of course, but these were the two best announcements I've heard all year. Maybe that says a little about how my attitude as a teacher has changed. At the beginning of the year I don't think I understood how important it is that the students have someone to be terrified of. I even made a student terrified of me when I told him I'd break his middle finger if he insisted on continuing to raise it in the direction of other students. He tried me on it, too, and I gave it a pretty good twist. Someone suggested I'd get fired for that up north... they were probably right.

annie are you ok

My freshman year in college, I had a 10 am physics class. Not early, but early enough for college. For williams, it was a big class, 35 or 40 students, and when the clock hit 10 and it was time for class to start, the prof would always push a little button and we would all hear the opening riff of "smooth criminal." He had it set up to fade out after about 5 or 6 seconds, well before "she came in through the window, to the sound of a creshendo" It was the perfect start to class, and by the time it had faded, everyone knew what was going on, namely, physics. When class ended, he pushed his hidden button somewhere, and the song started up again. Every once in a while he would vary the song, if there was another song that was perhaps more relevant to what we were doing, but from september through january, just about every class, I heard those same opening few notes.

This is something I'd like to try for next year. With less technology, and less time between classes, I wouldn't be able to work it exactly the same, but I think I could at least start, if not end class with it. Or end my bellringer with it, because when the music stops, that's when I need the focus on me, to try to teach something, anything,before I lose them.