One, it was a rough day today at work. Probably the roughest of the year. Not the roughest of all time, but pretty distinctive. Let me give you the misleadingly short, hyper-condensed version:
Student A, upon being told to go to the deans' office, him refusing, and me insisting that he leave: "(Abusive invective stream about my stupidity, my bitchiness, and my fatness.)"
A few minutes pass.
Student B, his comrade, because she cannot STFU after this and doesn't want to take a time-out in another teacher's room, decides to go home, and leaves me with: "(Extended remix of abusive invective stream, but pretty much the same old commentary on my stupidity, my bitchiness, and my fatness, with ample trillings of 'fuck you' for variety).
I report Student B for walking out. Campus monitor comes by with both kids in tow within 10 minutes. Says I have to send paperwork for "these students" ASAP. (Never mind that one of them was never told to leave.) I say I'm working on it as fast as I can, as I already have yet another referral for Student A in progress, never mind that I'm trying to facilitate one of my best lessons of the year while needing to document this ordeal properly - aka word for word - so it doesn't just result in a couple of days off for the student - but, I tell the monitor, Student A cannot be in my room. As a bit of a personal favor, it feels, she takes them back to wherever.
Can I yell? For just a paragraph?
A STUDENT WHO HAS MISSED 75% OF FIRST SEMESTER AND 40% OF THE SEMESTER SO FAR CAN STILL BREEZE IN TO DISRUPT AND DELAY MY CLASS, RUDELY MAKE COMMENTS ON HOW WE "NEVER DO ANYTHING," BRAZENLY REFUSE TO LEAVE THE ROOM, THEN - UPON LEAVING - YELL AT ME IN FRONT OF THE CLASS ABOUT HOW I'M STUPID, SOOOO STUPID, A STUPID FAT BITCH, JUST A STUPID FAT BITCH WHO IS (no clue about the rest, his volume decreased as he left his audience) - - - - - -
- - - - And I have to deal with the aftermath of not having the paperwork done while he was still talking, or not keeping him there until a monitor could come (which would still mean delaying class for the paperwork), when it was okay two days ago for the kid to walk out of my class to the deans' office for some cuddles because I didn't give him the seat he wanted.
(I'm not saying the deans' office provided the cuddles, just that he went there in search of some justice and was apparently admitted without special paperwork or anyone talking to me. I sent an email followup, but no one replied. So, he can give himself a time-out, but I can't send him to the same room to chill while I fill out the paperwork as quickly as I can while trying to read to the class and explain frickin' literature.)
And never mind Act II with his friend, which was actually far worse and far more inane.
WHY CAN WE NO LONGER KICK "STUDENTS" OUT OF THE ROOM?
Caps lock is hard to stop. The backspacing, the deleting afterwards. Suck in. Suck in. Suck in. Survive.
I have been so pleased with my 6th period lately. But some days, those kids who are rarely here show up, and it's a perfect storm.
Storm, apocalypse, you know what I meant.
Two, and I bet anyone reading this sighfest has forgotten that all of the above was "one," I have actually forgotten what two was.
I know this was supposed to a post with a fun little list of everything we've been up to lately. Then I felt like I just had to mark the wretched occasion a little, frame my glee in a "boy howdy, what a day" aside, and now here we are - the very-very short version, and I wonder in what human world it is "professional" or "desirable" to be the sort of person who can shake off being badly and publicly abused while stripped of the power to react reasonably?
Dad says write a book. I think that would kill me.
I love to teach. I love my schedule this year. I love most of my students, much as its not reciprocated.
I hate my job.
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