Never a Dull Moment

[ziasudra]

Kiddie stories!

The Good

• After a month and a half working with this year's groups of kiddies, they finally recognize me! I still get questions like: who are you? where are you from? But I'm now a legitimate teacher in their eyes instead of "that girl who shows up randomly in our class one day."
  
  
• There's this cuuutest little girl in my Monday 6th grade class, C. She's the heartthrob of all of the teachers. She does all her work, socializes well, is an amazing anime artist, and chases this hyperactive kid named J (who causes all the teachers major headaches) down the hall. I find the last thing amusing ^_^
  
  
• I got a hug today!!! This adorable little girl, S, gave me a hug before she left for her next class. *melts*
  
  
• I shouldn't be so excited when one of my kiddies read, seeing how it's reading class that I'm teaching. But today, among all the manga and Shonen Jumps, this little sixth grade boy told me that he finished reading the autobiography of Walter Dean Meyers, and liked it! He then asked the main classroom teacher to direct him to more WDM books. Wow, kids read.

The Bad

• The eighth grade class wasn't so nice today. We had to give up doing a read-aloud because they were making too much noise. It was too bad, because I was getting into the story and wanted to find out what happens next!
  
  
• SpongeBob SquarePants mad lip for the seventh graders didn't quite work. A few people never bothered doing the activities, while some were doing the mad lip while reading the story, so it ended up being a fill-in-the-blank exercise. *eyerolls* And we had to make some kids white out their adjectives and nouns because they were "inappropriate words." Aiya!

The Ugly

• Fight in the hallway between two Chinese students.
  
• Screaming student, M, during eighth period.
  
• Hyperactive students who chased each other around the classroom at any random moment, throughout eighth period.
  
• More hyperactive students during eighth period, trying to sneak out of the classroom, whom I had to physically bar from escaping and push them back into the room. *flexes muscles*
  
• Said students ended up going to the water fountain twice and the bathroom once. A very long bathroom trip.
  
• Students from item 3 shoved student from item 2. Student from item 2 rolled on the floor and screamed some more.
  
• One of the students from item 4, A, went around the classroom and tried to kiss his classmates on the cheek. He failed with the girls, but ended up kissing an unsuspecting boy, who was totally grossed out and looked like he was going to have a meltdown. A claimed he didn't kiss anyone.
  
• Two minutes before period eight ended, the entire class crowded by the door waiting to rush out. I was the... er... bouncer type person. Apparently the kiddies didn't grasp the concept that they needed to back away from an in-swinging door for it to open. So when the bell rang, I was literally squashed between the door and massive kiddies trying to fight their way to the (still closed) door. I had to push them all back *flexes muscles some more* yanked the door open, only to be stampeded as 289543 kiddies stormed out of the classroom.

As you can see, my eighth period 7th grade class is quite a challenge. My co-teacher and I came up with an analogy for this class: they're like animals in a zoo, some of which you should never, ever put in the same cage together, but they are :\

The conclusion? I love my kiddies ^_^

Comments

yea animal crossing!!

[luciechan.livejournal.com]

I also really like hearing about your experience teaching, as it is something I'm v. interested in. ^_^

Re: yea animal crossing!!

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

Animal Crossing is awesome! Denise just spent 3 hours playing while I watched her play attempted to do work.

By the way, did your Neopets egg hatch? I, er, got a candy corn for mine (check my 9/25 post). o_O

Re: yea animal crossing!!

[luciechan.livejournal.com]

Yea it did! Aww...I want candy corn...but i got a cute little dragon fella :)

Re: yea animal crossing!!

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

I should clarify that the 8th period seventh grade class is quite... unusual. Fights and chases and attemtped escapes are daily occurences, and some of them would literally get up in the middle of class and start dancing. Or screaming, which is worse.

All my other classes -- this year's and last year's -- are much calmer than that particular one. So chances are you won't have such a high concentration of ADHD/learning disability kids in one classroom should you decide to teach :)

[methegirl3.livejournal.com]

so cute! :D

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

I really love it at the school. If I'm not such a late riser, I might actually consider some sort of hands-on education type job for a career. But getting up everyday at 7 a.m. is simply impossible for me seeing how I sleep at 3 a.m.

By the way, glad you got to meet up with your dad. I'm so behind on commenting on my flist's LJ posts, but I always like reading your entries :)

[methegirl3.livejournal.com]

np. :)

yeah, im sure you know how i feel about meeting my dad and having him tour the campus. for some reason, it feels so necessary..don't u agree? hehe.

catch up with u later!

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

I managed to show my dad around both my campuses -- undergrad and grad. Of course, we went to the same undergrad school, so it was more of a revisit for him. But when I took him around NYU it was so much fun. I actually felt like a proud tour guide, lol.

Good night!

[sad1225.livejournal.com]

My buddy Geoff has been teaching 7th grade math.

He said he feels like a warden in a prison. He had to send 10 kiddies to the office last Friday.

I guess those are the breaks when you get a class that has had a sub for the last two months :(

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, warden, what a good analogy ;)

I think the eighth period class was exceptionally bad yesterday because they had a substitute teacher in ELA (English) class. Probably built up all the aggression with nowhere to release it.

[lynkemma.livejournal.com]

*stares*

Well, the good was sweet, but the ugly was ugly. Yipes. Is this an unusually... chaotic school?

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

My teaching job is through a government-funded program, which means the schools that get teacher-helpers are low-achievement schools in the inner city. So they're not your typical model students, no.

But I'd definitely say that particular 7th grade class is unique. A majority of them has some sort of learning disability, and I wouldn't be surprised if 75+ percent of them also has ADHD. So both the main teacher and I are aware of the challenges of this class. They were just exceptionally hyper yesterday, for whatever reason.

[sunnydlita.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's all very Dangerous Minds of you.

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

If only we have the same success rate as in that movie. For the marking period that just ended, half of that seventh grade class failed English, and there's no sign of them getting better (or I should say, wanting to get better, because they just don't care).

The odds are against them. Most of them are from the projects or from immigrant Chinese families where the parents work long hours at restaurants or at garment factories. This is why when a student does do well, all the teachers gush over him/her :)

[nenyaentwhistle.livejournal.com]

i was incredibly sheltered *hums*

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

I got today off because it's Veteran's Day. But my Friday classes are actually the most behaved ones, so I'm missing the best ;p