Teaching the Outsiders

• 90 Times.
  I swear, their timing is impeccable. Just as I start to feel better and (presumably) get less crabby, the kids start to aggravate even more than usual. But I guess I should be happy that, for a couple of them, there might have been a breakthrough. And yes, I still call them kids. I crack up at the teachers who say, “OK children…” Gawd, we would have died lau […]
• Rants and Raves
  I have been illin’ on and off (mostly on) for over a week. I  have attended an exquisitely useless meeting,  forced to grind my molars to powder in order not to make enemies of an entire department, the kids are on glue, and Modern Family was a rerun after I stayed up to watch all dopey and sick. I have been a little crabby lately. But I have also been doing […]
• Illin’
  I’ve been one of the walking dead for the past several days (it feels like a hangover–or, ahem, so I’m told– with a cough). I finally called in for a sub this morning. I forgot that practically every math teacher in the district was supposed to be at their version of our “benchmark scoring day.” The difference with the math people is that they were required […]
• A Moment of Insightful Self-Awareness (and Then It’s Gone)
  I have one of those kids this year whom it’s really hard to get mad at because: 1) He’s funny, and 2) He just can’t help it. Really. When someone says something, and he reacts, you can almost see the marionette strings being yanked as he does one of those double-take head shakes like in the cartoons. He’s just thought of something to say…so out it comes. He […]
• “The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!”
  Before I get back to the district assessment scoring day, I have to give props to the sub (sorry, guest teacher) who filled in while I was eating snacks and reading papers and “calibrating.” The scene when I announce that I will be gone on a particular day plays out the same almost every time. The following is from last year when I wen to my units’ 50 annive […]