Why I buzz
Wednesday, I teach four class periods. Not too bad except for the fact that I teach three of those periods back to back in the afternoon. All three of those afternoon classes are 8th grade classes. I don’t know what it is. I loved teaching 8th grade last year. The kids seemed to be younger, happier, and more respectful than the 8th graders I have here at this school.
Today, I really blew my top. It’s embarassing, really. Because, it’s only about 2 weeks into the semester and I’ve lost my cool with a class. Now, there is a difference between calmly kicking a kid out of class for calling me stupid (yes this happened today. She thought I wouldn’t understand if she called me stupid in Chinese) and yelling at a whole class and telling a kid in it that he is retarded. These events happened in two seperate classes. I keep telling myself that I must maintain control at all times. I must control the kids and I must control myself. Today, I wasn’t able to do either. I hit a kid’s desk as hard as I could with my right hand. I scared the Bejesus out of him. He pouted for the rest of class, but at least he didn’t say another word. I got up into another kid’s face for talking and talking and talking and talking and…..well you get what I mean. How is it that these kids have something so important to say to each other that they literally cannot keep quiet for more than 2 seconds at a time.
I told the talking kid to be quiet. He promised he would be. As soon as I turned my back to him, I heard his voice. This happened at least 9 times.
Anyway, the bell finally rang and I hurried out of class. As soon as 5:00 rolled around I was out of the office in a flash and went to work out. Ah, the feeling of working out; the feeling of straining your muscles and releasing and calling upon all of your physical energy. I still was a little pissed off when I got back to my room so opened this bottle (a bacardi breezer, of course). I’m on number three now and starting to feel much better about those 8th graders. I’ll be able to teach again tomorrow.
