Questions and Attitudes

C.F.C. started off my day today by coming to tell me that she couldn't hand in her yearbook writing on time because she was very stressed and had a lot of things to do.
I was so annoyed with her for even coming over.
I had given the class 6 weeks to do this writing in, and I had cancelled 6 weeks of journal entries so that they'd have time for it. If she came over to me to tell me that she wasn't going to get it done, that was total chutzpa on her part. I told her it was inexcusable, and that at most I could give her another 2 days.
I walked into 8th grade and started teaching history. We managed to get an aim done, but I'm not handling class these days. The girls are chatty and talkative and I don't have the strength to keep them quiet long enough for me to get a word in.
They don't mean to misbehave, but I can't take it.
I taught today about muckrakers and progressives, and I got the aim done, but I bored myself to tears doing it.
I planned on doing maps with them after that, but since Gerald Ford died today, the principal asked me to teach them a little about him, so I did.
The girls were taking out their siddurim to daven, when T.G. and B.G. piped up and asked me how a friend of mine was doing. They had been saying tehillim for her for the past week, and they were curious to know how she was.
They bombed me with a load of questions, and I only managed to get them to shut up and daven after they had wasted half their recess.
7th grade was even worse when it came to questions.
But I'm not up to that yet.
First I walked into a class where 4 girls were out for Shabbaton. I was so mad. Hebco made it seem to them that it was ok to miss my class to finish stuff for the Shabbaton. I was steaming when the girls sent a message to me that they needed to be out for another 10 minutes.
I thought it was so rude to send a message when they should have asked me permission in person.
I sent a message back that they belonged in my class PRONTO.
F.E. and A.S. nonchalantly walked in 5 minutes later. I should've punished them, but I was being nice and let them sit down.
We did some history, and when I tried to review no one knew a thing. I went up and down the rows asking each girl if they had studied.
S.S. told me she didn't' study. I was pissed. Of all the girls, she needs to study the most. I had made it clear to the class the this was the one chapter they HAD to study every night or else they'd fail the test.
I don't even feel that S.S. deserves to take the easy test this time if she isn't even making the effort to keep up.
I took 2 minutes to give it to the class and threaten to quiz them every day of the year if they didn't shape up.
R.A. drove me BATTY today by trying to teach the class. I need to talk to her and put her in her place....maybe one day when I'm not so stressed.
Towards the end of history, my phone began to ring, and looking at the ID, I saw that it was my friend who the girls had been davening for.
They were so upset at me for not picking up because they wanted to ask her how she was feeling. Instead, I picked up her message, and then let the kids listen to it.
That sparked a load of questions about her. They wanted to know everything there was to know. I couldn't answer all their questions, and I tried to get back to history, but they kept begging me to bring her in one day and they told me how much they wanted to meet her.
R.B. and S.E. were sooo into it. It was cute.
After history, I tried to get the girls into their reading groups. I ran into a problem there. 13/16 girls told me they had not done their reading homework.
I was ready to die.
I went and marked down every girl that did not have her sheets.
A.S. tried to tell me that she couldn't do it over Chanukah vacation, and I smiled sweetly and told her that the papers were due the day before their vacation. I then proceeded to mark her down as well.
I was at a loss.
I just stood at the front of the class and spoke. I told them that I just didn't know what to do anymore. Some girls felt really bad. I just kept on talking. I told them how hurt I was that after two weeks they had to complete the papers, none of them thought to have them done.
I asked them why I had to feel that their Shabbaton was more important than derech eretz to their teachers. A.S. and F.E. looked ashamed.
R.A. totally ignored my speech. She had picked up a book and started reading. I put her in her place.
I would very much like to have put them all in their places, but I doubt I did.
After about 5 minutes, I told them to just pack up and then I'd read to them. I should've just given them an assignment, but I was so exhausted and I didn't want them to leave thinking I was irrational and angry. I wanted to show them that while I was upset at them, I was also fair.
I'm going to talk to the principal tomorrow about something I could to to teach this class a lesson. I just didn't want to do it when I was so upset.
As she packed up, C.S.S. spoke loudly to her friends about how unfair I was to blame the class and how she had such good excuses for not doing her work. I must talk to the principal about suspending her.
After class, I asked them questions about their Shabbaton, and they girls were excited that I was taking an interest.
I'm so not interested, but I have to put on a good face. It's unfortunately a part of my job I'm getting good at.