A Day in the Life of a Middle School Teacher

I must appologize for being so tardy in my posting. I have been thinking much about the post that is to come, but I lack the apropriate pictures to acompany it. Therefore, the blog has remained stagnant for many days. Sorry, friends!
To make up for the days of silence, I decided to give you a snipet of my life at a Middle School teacher. The following account is from yesterday. First class of the day. I emailed this to my husband yesterday afternoon, and he was so entertained by it that I felt you might be, as well...
As I am about to post this, I am wishing that it was a humorous story instead of infuriating, but hopefully I'll have the humor side by the end of the week... Let's see if we can take this full circle... :)

(I have changed the child's name for obvious reasons...):

Me: Joe, are you talking (during a quiz)?
Joe: yes
Me: why? What do you need?
Joe: (no response. Simply looks back at his quiz.)
Me: Joe, did you hear me?
Joe: yes
Me: okay. What do you need?
Joe: (no response. Ignores me completely)
Me: Joe, please do not ignore me. What do you need?
Joe: (completely enthralled in his quiz paper. Ignoring me completely – still).
Me: Joe, step out of the classroom.
Joe: (no response or movement)
Me: Joe.
Joe: (no response or movement)
Me: (I walk over to his desk to help him gather his notebook and open the door for him)
Joe: (snatches the notebook away) I AM!
Me: Joe, get outside. Now.
Joe: oKAY! (very sarcastically )

As Joe is walking out the door, I am holding the door open for him. I shut it after him, however, he decides to pause right in the doorway, so the door clips his shoe as it closes. He opens the door back up and for the entire class he says, “YOU CAN’T HIT ME WITH THE DOOR!”

I go out in the hallway after him and speak with him more. Every response from him is disrespectful, completely claiming innocence and oblivious to what actually happened. He tells me that all he was doing was asking what the last part of the question was. I ask him if that were the case, why didn’t he just tell me that the very first time I asked him what he needed. He does not have an answer.

He continues to have an attitude as we talk, and I tell him to go down to the office. As he is walking away he is muttering disrespectfully under his breath, so I tell him to stop. He ignores me AGAIN. I tell him to STOP. He stops and says, “WHAT?! You told me to go to the office!”

I tell him that it should not take me two times of speaking to him to get a response. He says, “I don’t care.”
I say, “You really don’t care?“
He says, “nope.”
I tell him that he can just go to the office and wait for someone to talk to him. He says again, “I don’t care.”

When the bell rang to let out 2nd period, he comes back to my classroom and asks me who he’s supposed to be talking to. I sent him back and again told him to wait for someone to talk to him.

Later that afternoon, "Joe" brought me a note folded up in the fashion we used to love in middle school (the fold with the little tab that you pull to begin unfolding...). It read:

"Joe's Apoligy Letter

Dear Mrs. Power,
I am truely sorry for my actions. I know that I deserve the concequinces that I have brought upon myself. I apoligize for treating you in such a way that you don't deserve. I promise that this kind of situation will never happen again. I apoligize that I'm disrespectful at times. I realize that you are trying to help me when you get on to me about my behavior. I promise you that my behavior will definately change over the remainder of the year. You are really a great teacher and I just wanted to let you know that I appriciate you always being there when I need help. I really hope that you accept my apoligy, Because I really meant what I said. OOOOh, and another thing that I forgot to mintion (you are a really really great stepper).

,Luv Joe Tyrone Jones.

Lol:)"

Yes. I know a lot of it is misspelled, but I wanted to give it to you the way I received it. :) Gotta love my eighth graders... haha.

Here's to hoping for a great day today. I'm going to do my best to make it fun for them. I'm praying they don't turn it into another "yesterday"... My seventh graders are going to do some fun things with The Brothers Grimm stories, so that should give me a good story or two.... right?! :)


...I'll do my best to get some good pictures of the garden/house by next week. PROMISE!

also: we are going to have a House Party next weekend! the 29th. We didn't want to call it a Housewarming Party because we don't want people to feel like they have to bring us gifts. We just want you with us!
It'll be the classis BYOMeat & bring a side (and drink(s) if you like) to share! LOVE this kind of party! It's to celebrate the many friendly gatherings to come in our new home. Having our friends (aka: family) over to our home is one of our MOST favorite things to do. We're really excited, so we hope you can make it! email me if you need the address/directions! denisecpower@gmail.com