Hebco

The blogger website has been down the past couple of days and that's why you haven't heard from me in a while.
It wasn't such a bad thing, as I didn't have that much to say anyway.
Monday was a relatively quiet day, and Tuesday was curriculum day for teachers so there was no school anyway.
Today though, I'm angry and need a place to vent.
If last year I had issues with my principal; this year I have issues with the Hebrew co of 7th grade.
The 7th grade teachers had a meeting today with the principals to talk about 7th grade extra curricular activities and the class in general. We spent a lot of time discussing different girls in the class, and the Hebrew co pretty much dominated the conversation; which was weird, since I didn't really think she had all that great of a grasp of the girls' social scene in the classroom.
We started with C.S.S. and how her attitude was really affecting the class. She has C.K. and E.M.M. under her spell and D.A. and A.S. and a bunch of other girls are subconsciously following along.
We discussed different ways to break up the group and get them to make friends with others in the class.
Then of course, we had to discuss B.B. and what to do with her. Her aunt is coming down to school Monday so that she can sit with us and talk about the best possible thing for B.B. I'm dreading it a little. How are you supposed to tell someone you don't want their niece/daughter in your classroom anymore?
We talked about R.A. and N.N.'s social problems, and I was so relieved to hear the principal say that R.A. is annoying. If I'd have said something like that in my old school, the principal would've said it was all my fault, and that I was not tolerant enough.
The Hebrew co seemed to think that all was ok with S.G. and her status in the class. Funny thing was that later, when my co spoke to S.G. later, S.G. told her that she didn't think anyone in the class liked her. She said that she felt no one was nice to her anymore. I wonder how she could say that when the Hebrew co insisted that she was sooo happy.
I wonder what else the girls are lying to us about? According to the Hebco (I like that new word) the class is wonderful and great.
Well my co and I had gone in planning to work as a team to make sure the girls don't get to have a grade Shabbos. We pushed and pushed for a melave malka instead; and in the beginning the principals agreed with us. Problem was; this Hebco had them eating out of her hand, kiss up that she is, and by the end of the meeting, they were all pushing for a Shabbos. My co and I wasted an afternoon there.
We already both said that we wouldn't be there if the 7th grade had a Shabbos, but I also hate to think that by doing that we are basically giving the 7th grade over to the Hebco and letting her do what she wants with them. I'm not comfortable just yet to wash my hands of the 7th grade just because Hebco is hard to deal with.
I need to discuss this with my co a little more.
Anyway, while we were at the meeting, the 8th grade managed to shatter the window in their classroom; which I think is quite funny and cool, but don't tell them I said so, because I yelled at them for it.
I had to rush through history to cover the material on tomorrow's test, and I went through recess to finish it all.
It was fine because my co walked in late, so they had their recess. They also had more than enough recess while I was at the meeting. Any class that has to break a window out of boredom, definitely has had too much recess.
Seventh grade was fun today. I don't even know why.
In history I got really into it, and was joking around with them a lot about the topics we were covering.
I then closed the door and told them a huge secret of mine- how much I hate grammar. I told them that the grammar we would learn would only be fun, and that as soon as it wasn't fun anymore we would stop.
They seemed to be ok with the idea, and were very good about starting to learn sentence structure.
At the end of the day I gave out their project marks and they all seemed to be fine with their marks.
I saw some girls comparing marks, and I wasn't so thrilled, but what I did like was that not a single girl came over to me to contest her mark.
To quote Phoebie from the Magic School Bus Series, "This would never happen in my old school!"