Dear Mr. Teachbad, I am being told to add in two weeks of remediation without changing the curriculum. I have tried to point out that adding in 2 weeks of work will result in losing 2 weeks of work from the end of the curriculum…I am being labeled a troublemaker for pointing out this nicety. Other teachers who have been included in this edict are telling me off. How could I possibly say that this is changing the curriculum? Am I mad? Crazedmummy Dear Crazed: I don’t get why the other teachers Read more [...]
Archive for the ‘Students: Better and Worse’ Category
The dedication of students to delay, decry, disrupt, demand, disengage, dick-around and deliberately dissemble draws on a deep deposit of determination. My drive and desire to debate, describe, direct, dissuade, distract, differentiate and dangle inducements is definitely dangerously diminished. Deriously. Is that enough with the Ds? Mos def. (Just stop.) The Second Wall: I’ve hit it. You might be wondering what The First Wall was. That’s a fair question. I wrote about The First Wall here Read more [...]
I walked out of my school this afternoon, breathed in the sharp, cool air and thought about where to stop for a snack before going home. It’s a busy street that joins other busy streets, with lots of people and traffic and stores. It’s perfect if you like those things. If you don’t, it could be rather off-putting. I saw a student of mine who graduated last year. I crossed the street and ran a bit to catch up with him….I thought he saw me. Maybe he ignores me because it’s not cool to acknowledge Read more [...]
Hello, Everybody! Here’s something new. It’s a song I wrote about my first day as a teacher. I started as a frightened sub in a sixth grade class; hoping to do it for just one day, or maybe the week. I got my ass chewed up pretty bad. That was in 2003. And now here we are. Anyway, the song is called “I Hate Children”. It’s the only song I’ve ever written and I have learned just enough guitar to play it not so well. Plus, I don’t really sing. So this should be good. In the video I am wearing a disguise Read more [...]
I have hit it: The First Wall. I feel like crap. Don’t care. Watching the clock. Starting to look for my first second wind about now. It’s that first time of the year when I just get tired and ornery. And I feel like my time is short and I have seen these movies before. The kid who hasn’t been here in two weeks suddenly walks in. He’s all smiles. Doesn’t give a fuck. Sits down and goes to sleep. Really? What exactly am I supposed to do with that? How about this…I will tell you what you need Read more [...]
Can I rebuild you A seventeen year old From the ground up? Can I reconfigure your Attitudes, habits and values? And teach you to read In 4000 minutes? Can I splash a fresh coat of paint over Seventeen years of Emotional neglect and slack parenting Stewed in a vat of deep fried Intellectual mass suicide? This is my mission (Spoken only quietly) I prayed that I could But I can’t do that Not any more than I can read to you When you were a baby (Crux: 1. the decisive point at issue; 2. a difficult Read more [...]
Today in my class something pretty cool happened. I was teaching the fundamental principles of the US Constitution. They way I teach it, there are six. I put my students into six groups. Each group was to create a poster that did three things. It was to 1) define or explain the principle, 2) create some sort of drawing that represents this principle, and 3) write a poem/song/rap/etc that expresses the idea of this principle. (Multiple learning styles in da house.) Then each group would teach their Read more [...]
Regular readers of this blog will know that I generally tend to highlight the absurd of this job. I discuss that which enrages, embitters and saddens. These are the things that make me laugh. And without laughter, Mr. Teachbad becomes dangerous. But today I’d like to discuss something different. As I have mentioned, I teach mostly seniors. These cats are ready to go. They are as done with Mr. Teachbad’s bullshit as he is with theirs. But in the midst of all of the craziness of the end of senior Read more [...]
You’ve done nothing here And now you’re going to fail So you want to deal Extra credit and more time Where were you the last twelve weeks? Mother fucker, I’m sick of this. How can you be more disorganized than me? How can you be this far behind and expect to graduate in three weeks? How can you not even know how far behind you are? Oh. I see. Clever child. You have figured out that it isn’t really YOUR responsibility to make sure you get your shit together to graduate. You know that it is Read more [...]
You’re what? Don’t be sorry Be quiet If you were sorry, you’d stop You’d shut the hell up You’d listen and work But you continue Making noise and being rude In my basement I have boxes and buckets and baskets and barrels of sorry Between the work bench and the bench press Under the stairs and piled in the back closet I painted my house with sorry I pack fragile packages to mail with sorry I’m out of room I can’t get rid of the shit Stick that sorry up your ass
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