Welcome back kiddies!

Well, the first day back wasn't as bad as I had expected.  I even let my physics class play with open pipe resonators. (Little plastic tubes that you swing in a circle to make noise).  My fifth period chemistry class went on a field trip so I only had two students.  I guess a week of boredom at home has made them anxious to get back to school to visit with their friends.  I"m saying a prayer that it keeps up like this.

Now the fun begins...

Oh boy.  Spring break is almost over and the kids have three weeks of school left.  Actually, two weeks and four days since the last Friday is Field Day, so no classes.  It will be interesting to see if they are anxious to be back at school or if they are ready for summer to be here.  I'm hoping this next week they will be calm.  I have not been observed by the principal yet this year.  I am supposed to get evaluated twice a year.  I'm betting she will wait until close to the last day of school when the kids are completely unmanageable to observe me.  I have that kind of luck.  Well, wish me luck!

4/20 Finally a break!

Amazingly not too bad a day.  Most of my 11th graders were on a field trip, 10th graders had to dissect a flower and 12th graders took a vocabulary quiz today.  (Tip for new teachers:  Always give a test on the day before a long holiday break just to keep the kids from becoming impossible to deal with.)  Actually made it out of there before 4pm, which was great because I'm starting my spring break by heading north to my family and friends.  Talk to you all in about nine days!

4/19 Friday Eve!!!

So, test tomorrow for some classes.  I had them doing the end of chapter review questions (1-22) and they start whining, "We never learned this!"  I told them we had read the entire chapter and done the vocabulary.  They exclaimed, "We can't learn that way!"  I felt like saying, "I can't grab your hand and force you to write the vocabulary and I can't grab your head and slam it into the book and force the information into your head." But I held back. Then they started, "We don't have enough notes for this open note test."  I informed them that they were welcome to take their books home and write all the notes they wanted to write before the test tomorrow. That shut them up.  Victory!  In the words of another teacher at my school..."You can't fix stupid." Just got to get through tomorrow, then nine whole days before I have to be back!  Woohoo!

4/18 Fred 8's gonna be a writer!

My "lab rat", the student who helps me in the lab, has just submitted an article to examiner.com.  I'm so excited that he had the discipline to write an article and the courage to submit it.  I've been writing for them for about a year now and have gotten a lot of satisfaction out of it, albeit not a lot of money.  I hope this will put him on a path to a bright future!  All the other kids were horrible today, except for my physics class.  We watched an earthquake movie in lieu of wave problems, so they were model students.  Nothing like the threat of math problems to get a bunch of seniors to sit quietly and behave.  I'm figuring these guys out a little at a time!

4/17 Three days until Spring Break

Some days I can't find a single student that I like.  I know it's getting close to the end of the year.  And I know that the kids are just acting like kids do when it's this close to summer vacation.  But, man!  I had one student today who came screaming to me because she made a 69 on a test.  An OPEN BOOK test.  An OPEN BOOK test that they took on Friday and did so poorly on that I gave it back to them to do on Monday to correct any wrong answers!  She's never made a 69.  And I guarantee that her mom will call the school tomorrow screaming just like she did today.
It just seems like these students whine about not knowing anything, then whine when they are expected to learn something.  Lazy I can deal with.  Dumb I can deal with.  But lazy, dumb and whiny make me want to pull my hair out!  God, I hope I can make it through the last eighteen days without telling them what I really think of them!

4/16 After Prom- Before Spring Break. Rock. Hard Place.

I feel like I've survived walking through a hornet's nest.  Between all the excitement about Prom last Saturday (yes, I did have to work it) and spring break coming up next week, it was all I could do to get the kids to get quiet and pay attention to their lessons.  On top of that, someone in the teacher next door's classroom turned the thermostat to heat.  Lucky me, his thermostat controls the temperature for both of our rooms.  I began sweating and had a momentary fear that I was having a hot flash.  I was supposed to take my zoology kids to dissect frogs today (ok, it was supposed to be last week), but I couldn't get them settled down enough to get them to the lab.  No way was I going to hand them scalpels and probes!  Hopefully, tomorrow they will be in control enough to get these frogs cut open.  If not, we are moving on.  I still have to cover reptiles, birds and mammals by the end of May.  This is one of the few times I actually closed my door after my last class and said "Whew!"  I have a nagging fear that this is just the beginning of things to come this week.