Friday, March 24, 2006

Spring Fever

I spent the morning applying to other schools. I faxed my resume to any school that would take it. I got a comment from a friend of mine, N.Y.F., about my first post on this blog. My friend was saying how my views had changed so much since the beginning of this year. At first I was all idealistic, I was teaching for heart and not for money, and now all I talk about is how little I get paid LOL. N.Y.F. is right. My ideals have changed. But not all the way.
I still believe that teaching is all about heart, and not about the amount you get paid. But now the issue that I'm really angry about is the respect we teachers get. Or maybe 'don't' get' is more correct.
You would think that parents would respect the people who mold their kids' minds just a bit more. We have to put up with so much today that teachers didn't have to in the past. The attitudes of the kids and parents, the idea that teachers are disposable... The money was never an issue until I realized that for everything I go through for these kids, I deserve a little more recognition.
I have a huge feeling that it has a lot to do with the school I'm teaching in.
Of the schools I applied to today, when I asked about salary, the lowest quote I got was $15,ooo. That's more than double the amount I make now. This is not to say that $15,000 is a lot, but it's better than $6,000. The people I spoke to were also so much nicer than anyone I've heard for the past couple of months.
Lately, I've been a lot more anxious about this whole school situation. I even convinced my co to begin applying to other schools. Maybe it's just spring fever.
Talking about spring fever, my students have it bad.
The 7a class had won a clean-up contest with my co, so she bought them pizza and they had lunch on the roof. The 7b class was out to kill.
Just my luck, I had them first today. They were so jumpy and annoying, it was a wonder I kept my cool. R.H. took her time distracting the class by calling out during literature about newspaper things she had to do. I sent her out to take care of them.
When she came back into class, she made a huge deal about having missed 3 lines in her notes. What did she think? I was going to wait for her? She then spent a nice portion of time cutting out circles of purple paper for my co's class. I stopped the entire lesson to put her in her place.
Then L.K. started up. At least twice a week L.K. tells me as soon as I walk into class about something hurting her. Usually not something can do anything about. Recently, I began asking her if a kiss would make it go away. It works like a charm on my 4 year old brother. She turned red and since then she's slowly stopping to to interrupt my class with all her stories.
But today was a nightmare. She got up in the middle of class to get something from R.H.'s desk. R.H. sits 3 seats behind her. She's always turning around to talk to M.P. or someone, and I can't stand it. I really gave it to her.
T.K. was bothering me so much today. She also has this thing everyday when I come into class, she complains at how cold it is. It could be 100 degrees outside, but she'll need to put up this show of being cold. It kills me.
She also has to go out of my class about 4 times every day.
Today I refused to let her out of class during literature. I didn't let anyone go out of class during literature today. In two minutes she raised her hand 4 times. "Can I go out now?" Ohhhh, if looks could kill...
I let only the newspaper girls out. When I sent L.K. out to finish her covers for newspaper, T.K. asked if she could join her. I put my book down for a minute and looked at her. Then I said quietly, "There is a difference between leaving class, and being made to leave. Don't make me teach you the difference."
After literature, when I began writing, I started letting girls out. T.K. refused to raise her hand. She just whispered loudly to the girls around her, "She's ignoring me on purpose... She knows I want to go out!"
I ignored her until she raised her hand.
It was such a relief to get out of there.
I gave out the finally developed Purim pictures to the girls. They were all thrilled with them, but it really added to the spring fever mood.
The other class was quieter, yet, they're also "spring fevering." C.O. was not sitting still all day. Lately, she's becoming friends with S.G.L. and they've taken to whispering across the classroom. My nerves are fraying little by little.
At the end of the day, the girls showed me a bunch of baby pictures they'd brought in and made me guess who was who. I'm terrible at this, but I looked at them anyway. I had actually brought in my own baby picture for my co so that she could play this game with the girls during their special lunch. She said that they really enjoyed it.
The twelfth grade was so immature. I can't believe that they're only a year younger than I am. I was showing them a presntation called Inspired and there were some girls who were giggling at one part. They make me feel so much older than 18 and a half.
Ok, I'm almost 19 by now. Two months left to go. But still, there's no reason 18 year olds should be acting so immature.
I spent a lot of time typing for newspaper. There are no articles coming in, and I have a feeling that this paper will be a disappointment to the girls. They thought that just because they were able to get a paper done in a week, having three weeks would be a breeze. But quite the contrary, it's far from it!
Especially, when I'm left doing all the work.
But at least it looked good on my resume. I made sure to write that I took care of publishing the school newspaper.
I also enrolled in a college course for creative writing. That's one thing I'm excited for.
The other thing I'm excited for is going to bed. It's about 1:30 am.

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