So now that I've successfully finished the first week (ehrr 3 days) of school and celebrating by 24th birthday (thanks for all of the love) I finally have a little time to collect my thoughts. So many of you have asked how the first week went and you probably got a unintelligible rant only broken up by uncontrollable sobbing. Okay. Maybe it wasn't that bad, but I did leave school last Wednesday feeling very violated and wondering what just happened to me. So I'm teaching 3 different sections of 6th graders who meet 4 times a week and 3 sections of 8th graders who meet 3 times a week. In all fairness the 8th graders are really great. I mean I think this also because the classes are smaller and I'm not sure but I think they have a choice as to whether they want to study Russian or French. In my 8th grade classes I have about 15 students per class and they manage to behave themselves for the most part while I try to re-create some kind of cross between Mr. Belding, Robin Williams in Dead Poets' Society, and Michelle Pfeiffer ala Dangerous Minds. It's a hot mess. However the fact that the kids laugh at me means that they can somewhat understand me which is half the battle. Now onto the 6th graders. Wow I don't even know where to begin. The classes first of all are huge. At least 26 students per section so half the time I spend trying to get them not only to stay in their chairs but not to pick up their chairs and hit another student with it. The physical assault isn't limited to the students, my first day I got hit with a soda bottle and a paper airplane. I couldn't even get mad about it, I was just in such shock that this was/is my life. I didn't stop yelling for the entire 45 long minutes. It was just frustrating to me because there were about 3 kids who really wanted to learn, 5-7 who would learn if they had nothing better to do, then everyone else was running amok. Legit one boy was on the floor squirming around like he was in a fox hole. Already (after 3 days) I've noticed a lot of the students not showing up at all. It's definitely going to be a challenge but the kids seem to generally like me. Weird. They're just young and haven't been disciplined. If you have any ideas other than duct taping them to their seats I'm all ears.
Lots of love!
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