Today I hate my job

[Veronica]

I don't have the patience to deal with the outright stupidity, lack of focus, need for attention, inability to listen, poor social skills, immaturity, apathy to learning, and sub par reading comprehension that is rampant in my classroom. There are dumb questions. The ones that get asked about the very thing I just talked about, two minutes ago and ended with, "Are there any questions?"

I so want a pint of Ben and Jerry's right now, followed by a bag of Hershey's Symphony toffee chip flavor and maybe 3 or 4 Red Bulls or maybe an orange soda.

Veronica

[indysteel]

((((Veronica)))). I'm sorry your class stinks this year.

[Bike Writer]

Oh Boy, sorry to hear about a rough day/week/class. Thankfully, it's finally Friday.

[Crankin]

Your class sounds dreadful. I empathize, really.
You can avoid the junk food! Or at least, most of it.
I am seeing one of my clients in his kindergarten class. It feels nice to be in a nice school, but man, talk about hard work. The kids are learning about brain based learning and learning styles, along with their letters.

[Veronica]

I feel so badly for the kids who really want to learn and are ready to be 4th graders. You can see them practically rolling their eyes at the others. I need to figure out how to teach half my kids to think. Learning to read directions would be a good start.

I avoided all the junk food, still crave it. I had a Chobani 0 rapsberry flavor when I got home.

Veronica

[jobob]

Hoo boy. You have my sympathies. Hang in there! and Happy Friday.

[Bike Writer]

I've taught Sunday School for 7 years, I know it's not like being a real teacher because it's only once a week and only for an hour, not all day, but I do empathize with having kids who disrupt and are difficult. I love teaching Sunday School, two years ago I had a class that nearly made me quit. It was the largest class I'd had and I had 3 very disruptive kids who had a variety of issues from having no attention span, poor manners, no focus and relished chaos and disruption for the sake of attention. I felt really bad for the kids who were there to learn and I know that they were disgusted and fed up with the hooligans too. I tried talking to the parents, the Sunday School Leader, everything. It got to where I dreaded my class instead of looking forward to it. I tried different things and felt like a failure for not being able to sustain control at times. The next year I had really great kids who wanted to learn and the joy was back.

I really felt for the 6th grade teacher who had them next and at a teacher's meeting she shared her frustrations about them. While I empathized with her and tried some suggestions it made me feel better that it was not just me. This lady was also a real teacher in her day job so it made me realize that some kids are just downright difficult and almost unteachable. And those kids can make a teachers life miserable.

[Veronica]

I actually wanted to cry today; they had me so frustrated by the end of the day. We're only 7 weeks in. But that's part of the problem. By now they should know the routine. Things don't change randomly in my classroom.

Right now I just don't know what I'm going to do. So much of my structure and student engagement is built around teams of four. But I have 5 kids who cannot be with anyone else. And they certainly can't be their own team. One girl is suppose to be in third grade. She came from another school in our district and was allowed to move from K to first grade in Oct. of her K year. It's painfully obvious how immature she is and she hasn't mastered third grade material. Parents of course did not come to Back to School Night and are limited English speakers.

Yippee, my honey is home.

Veronica

[IBrakeforPastry]

Happy weekend, Veronica. Before I got to the "classroom" part of your post, I thought you were describing your co-workers. Some of mine fit those descriptions. I hope you can enjoy your weekend. What flavor Ben and Jerry's?

[uforgot]

I hear you. I feel the same way this year, so I have decided that it's time to retire after 34 years teaching high school math and music. I'm not sure if the kids are different, were they always this entitled? or is it me. Have I changed. Don't even get me started on the parents. 99% of the parents and kids are terrific. It's that 1% that's killing it for me. I think I consumed the same amount of calories last night that you were talking about. I painted this summer, and I felt wonderful. No headaches, overeating, etc. It was physically exhausting, but I think I am ready to just give the stress a break. Pretty sad that I would rather paint an entire house than teach. And up until recently I loved my job. I spent over 30 years looking forward to going to school. Now it's time to move on. My thoughts are with you Veronica.

[Wahine]

V, That sucks. I'm sorry you're having such a hard time.

I don't know what to say that would help. I know that I couldn't do what you do on a daily basis. I would have been imprisoned for murder multiple times over by now. At least if I'm not getting anywhere with my clients, I can discharge them for non-compliance and send them away and I don't have to deal with them disrupting the rest of my caseload.

((((V)))))

[malkin]

I too have co-workers who fit the description of your students.
The world needs great teachers V! Hang in there.

[Veronica]

Thom got up this morning and asked me what I was reading. It was my book on Cooperative Learning. Yeah, I'm already formulating a plan. I'm calling it FATSS. F@#$ Academics, Teach Social Skills. I've got two years with this crew and I cannot come home feeling this way too many more times. They're like puppies who need socialization. I can't really move on to the advanced stuff, until they learn to get along. Their test scores from last year were horrible, and I have been so focused on cramming the academics down their throats because we live and die by our test scores. And I need to just let that go, no matter what my principal says. Although, he has acknowledged that there is not much brain power in my group. Most of my problem kids have been tested for Special Ed and don't qualify because they are working to their potential - 4 out of my 6. The other 2 are new to the school - Program Improvement transfers. Parents moved them from under performing schools to our school.

Veronica

[Crankin]

This is what my school did when they wanted a total change of culture (including the teachers...). We implemented the Responsive Classroom model, which I now believe is called something else. It's a lot more than morning meeting. I loved it and this is actually what made me start thinking about changing careers. Although I really did enjoy teaching writing and literature, teaching social and emotional skills was much more rewarding to me. And most of the other teachers hated this.

[Veronica]

One of our teachers is really into Responsive Classroom. It doesn't resonate as well with me as Kagan's Cooperative Learning. Either way, it's not something you can really "force" teachers to do. They can go through the motions, but if they don't believe in it, it won't be successful.

My plan is step back from the academics a bit and really teach and reinforce the cooperative structures. I need to turn them into cohesive groups of 4. I'll still be doing academics, but the focus will really be about learning to work together.

Veronica