The Rodeo!

Am on a 6-day assignment with the same classes. Environmental Science. Ninth graders! Their teacher quit. A new one has been hired but it takes a long time for clearance.

They are studying "dirt." Actually, the subject is soil .... I have a little fun with the subject. Agree with them that I find dirt boring. The only good dirt is removed with soap and water. I note that at the top of one of the worksheets, there is a column labeled, "What is soil?" It reminds me about what I just recently learned in a Marine Biology class at another high school. Regurgitation is one of my specialties.

Hey guys, I see you are studying "How Soil is Formed"....I don't know much about dirt (I emphasize the word), but I can tell you about beach sand. (That's what I thought - perks their attention!) There's this little reef fish, forget its name....might be Dory, not sure....but it goes around chewing reef(er) (I softly add the er ending, which causes others to tune in to what I'm saying), and it excretes sand. (They don't understand "excretes" and I get these "what the" looks.) Okay, excrete....means to eliminate bodily wastes....(they aren't getting that either.) It poops, okay?....It poops out sand.... (They erupt into laughter. They understand poop and really like it.) The problem is that since the game fish.... "What are game fish?" one interrupts. Game fish are fish that people sport fish for, like snapper, like mahi-mahi, like grouper.... anyway, their numbers have been greatly reduced and those fish eat the reef eaters. (Am starting to lose them, need to get back to poop quickly.) Sooooo Ladies and Gentlemen, Dory is eating reef, doing major damage,, destroying lots of reef, and pooping (got their full attention again!), and she is pooping out sand...and there's lots of poop-sand. Just one Dory can poop out a ton of sand a year and there are lots and lots of Dorys pooping out there, maybe millions, maybe billions. (The girls are wrinkling their noses and the guys are grossing out abit, too, but trying not to show it.) So the next time you all go to the beach and you're lying on that sand, feeling that great sunshine, getting that great tan, and it maybe smells a little ..... (lots of grimaces now), just remember you aren't lying in crushed shell-sand anymore like it used to be, it is fine, silty, sticky and smelly -- it's fish poop! (Got lots of "ous" and comments that I had traumatized them, and forever ruined any future visits to the beach.) hahahahaha I doubt that.

Yesterday wasn't a good day as far as I was concerned. Have a sore throat from trying to talk over them. Found a microphone 7th period, late, and that is a help for my sore throat.

An AP just brought in a young black woman that will be their new teacher starting Friday. She looks like early 20s, soft spoken and all. The AP asked me how it was going with the kids. I asked her back, "Truth?" Seriously I did not want to answer, but felt I had to respond since she asked me point blank.(This is one of those times that you don't ask a question unless you know FOR SURE what the answer will be. Also reminds me of the quote from A Few Good Men; "YOU can't handle the truth!")

I wonder now, do I have an "I'm an idiot-look to my face?" Or maybe she believes all substitutes are missing the burger out of a Happy Meal. Not sure.....

So I started telling her, the AP.....anyway, she wasn't real thrilled to be hearing all that with the new one standing there. The refusals to obey the slightest command like "Stop throwing paper," "turn off your music,""please sit IN the desk not ON it....or my all-time favorite, please be quiet so I can call the roll." She justified that they are ninth graders. I said I see the same problems that I have been experiencing for days, written on detention and referral forms in the drawer. She says, "Those need to be cleaned out." OK, I see now. Deny the problem exists...but the new teacher is standing right there. Then she says something about my "having done this rodeo before" and I nodded yes. (Although I must admit I was taken back abit at the use of the word, rodeo...like do I look like I have been ridden hard and put up wet or something? How I detest that saying!) She adds "This is her 1st.", like she wasn't standing there hearing her. Surely she (the new teacher) understood what the AP meant by "first rodeo." Like don't tell her how much its gonna hurt when you get thrown and all the bulls stomp you? Lol! (Weird that she used the "rodeo" metaphor....?????)

So then I told her, the new teacher, that the kids would really love her since she is so cute and young. And they will...they are absolutely gonna love terrorizing her! (A couple others teachers briefly discuss this in one of the work rooms, and how it is easier for the Administration to just deny the problem exists. After all, the kids are in the majority, and the teacher is just one entity  The teacher who had just quit had only been here since January. She was young, too, newly engaged. And the one prior is on maternity leave. Maybe she had such awful classes that she got preggers just to get away til this school year is over? Just saying.....it's a possibility.

I had been telling the department chair and the principal's secretary as well as staff at student services that I was having problems with them, but they were like “oh they're just 9th graders....” and “the teacher that just quit didn't know how to handle them.” But today, the powers-that-be decided they would pop in for a visit from time to time. First visit, I pointed out 2 who absolutely refused to put away their IPods and IPads that they were playing loud music on.  This wasn't the first day they'd done this. And no matter what I said, they refused to obey. On big signs all over the school, these electronic devices are prohibitive - merely seeing one is enough to have it taken and not returned except to the parent. I am beginning to believe that this is a rule that is not enforced.  In the process, another kid got snagged for some other infraction, but I forget what. Could have been dress code, with boxers-covered butt showing. They got taken out in the hall for a bit.

Then a little bit later, one of them had some kind of nothing disagreement with another boy and then the other boy’s lunch got snatched, and then that seemed to start the meltdown. I threatened to push the button and the kid got his lunch back.I was trying to help a girl with the assignment when the same perp said something about “F--k you” real loud. I looked up and he was looking at me. Not something I could ignore, and I do try to ignore if possible. So I said “Excuse me?” (in that special intonation cuz that’s what I’m talking to) He said “what-what?” which has become real popular to say. Kyle, my grandson, says it all the time to his mama and gets his face knocked off.

I said, “I know you weren't speaking to me!” And he said the what-what again. So I said, “That’s what I thought” feeling like it had been addressed and I won. But next thing I know, he’s kicking some desks out of the way and inviting the kid whose lunch he took to fight right there. At least that's what I thought was going down. I said “that’s not happening, sit down.” Actually, he was inviting this 12th grader that needed to make up the class for graduation, who had just entered the class today, and who is a wrestler to fight with him, cuz he objected to his having stolen the other kid’s lunch – is the little brother of one of his friend’s??? Or something like that. I wish I could have looked the other way and let it go down, but I had to hit the button to call for help, which caused a man with a walkie-talkie to show up a few minutes later -- maybe an AP or maybe a coach. Someone with authority. He told the bad boy (who was back in his seat, looking all innocent) to come with him, and the hooligan says, “you’re gonna need reinforcements cuz I ain’t going with you.” But he did finally.

They had been out the door for maybe a full minute, when the senior boy quietly exited. There was a brief pause and at that, the entire class got up in one movement and headed for the door in a stampede knocking over books, desks..... They all piled out of the classroom into the long corridor while I was hitting the button again. I hit BOTH buttons, the white and the red. Next minute or so, the kids are all running back in and the a whole bunch of men show up. They are pissed. Each has a walkie talkie. One in a black polo emblazoned with school mascot because barking commands. I am his only solitary fan cheering and waving in the stands, but manage to remain quiet and somber expressioned. I didn't know the principal. But it was he who donned the black polo. Big tough looking white guy. I asked the kids who he was when he left.

Well after that, I guess the administration got the message that this is not an easy group after all. Not just mere immature ninth graders. They had some big man popping in again ever so often in all the classes, throughout the rest of the day to read them the riot act. Talk mean and tough. Mentioned detentions, Saturday school and In House suspension. The kids were put on notice. I had a better rest-of-the-day, although it wasn't perfect, it was better than it had been. Got one more day with these classes and then Friday will be in a different class.

Yesterday, I said “Thank God” cuz here I was thinking I might be willing to jump thru whatever hoops were necessary to be a permanent teacher again and HE has shown me that this IS NOT something this old gray mare wants.