This week in school ...

The week is over. It's Saturday and I survived my first week. This weekend will be an intense weekend of preparing ahead so I don't have nights like I did this week. I was up until about 11:00 every night and then at the school 45 minutes before class started.

So I have (soon to be had) this class of grade 9s. They are good kids, individually, and I like them. But as a group, they are really hard to teach ... and generally keep in the classroom. Obviously, my brand of classroom management doesn't work with them. Yesterday's class was the best because I actually raised my voice and they liked that. It still cracks me up that some students don't want a nice teacher, they want a stern teacher. This is the class where one of my students raised their hand and asked me what the word "prick" means. I responded with, "You know when you are sewing with a needle and and you poke yourself in the finger ..." Then one kid said he wanted the noun definition not the verb definition. I just rolled my eyes, and said that they can ask their parents. Anyway, the VP has given me an out. He's teaching a directed studies class of a few kids taking Communications, Social Studies and Math. He's having a hard time with the math, so he offered to switch me classes. Of course I said yes. But I did explain that I felt bad because I feel like I'm running away from my problems. He said that he's seen the composition of the class and the reason two of the students are in my class because they would disrupt the learing of all the other students in the other math class. And then two students failed math 9 last year and are retaking it, and that over half the others in the class are taking alternative ed for their other core classes. He said that any teacher would have a hard time with the class and that he wants my first year at the school to be a good experience. I'm glad to not have the class, on one hand, but I do feel like it would be a good learning experience for me. If I could handle that class, I could handle any class. But I am relieved too.

This week as I was introducing myself, I decided to tell the students three things about myself. I told them I have a twin brother, I love to mountain bike and I've never been fishing before. They all just looked at me stunned. I was thinking I grew another head or something. Then one girl said, "You are such a wierd-o. You've never been fishing!" And all the other kids agreed. That made me laugh. Apparently, I have to go fishing .. and sometime soon.

After I introduced myself with my last class, I asked if anyone had any questions. One kid, Kenneth, asked me if it was true that I went to school with a famous singer. I said, yes, it was true. As the kids were introducing themselves, one kid has the same name as a famous children's author, who happened to be a regular customer in the store I worked at in my hometown. I told the students that I knew the author. Kenneth than asked me how many famous people do I know. I laughed and told him that about it.



A lot of the kids have white-out. And I have no idea where they got it from ... because I want some. The school doesn't have it ... the store doesn't have it. I guess I have to order some online. Along with mechanical pencils!!!! And white erasers. These are necessities of a math diet. I am anal about school supplies, yes, I know.



I think I have a goast. I was sitting in my living room and my refridgerator door slammed shut. It freak the shit out of me. I hadn't been in the kitchen for like, a half hour, and I'm pretty sure I closed the fridge last time I was in there. I don't like that I have a may have a ghost. I guess I won't be entirely convinced until I get another piece of evidence.

We had a fire drill this week. It's wierd that when we evacuate the school, I can see my house from where we were standing.

After the hard week at school, the teachers went to the next community over to have dinner and some drinks. We took one of the teachers power boats there. It's nice to know that I can always kiyak to this community in about an hour. This community has a consignment clothing store, a hardware store and a general store with things we don't have in our store. I was quite impressed. It was nice to intract with adults for a while. Of course, we ended up talking about the students most of the night. But that's what teachers do.

Ok, I know I mentioned I would talk about sex and music, but I just said that to keep you on the edge of your seat. This entry wasn't too amusing, but it's what happened. I'll try to write something crazy later this weekend.