First conferences DONE!

The crazy conference night is tomorrow evening...blurgh, I'm trying not to think about it.

We had a half day today, dismissing at 10.30 (after third period). So I only had Class B. We did some literature circle stuff. Then, I had wanted to do some fun and games. However, the class had some, shall we say, issues. Six students were chewing gum. TWO of those girls chewed gum more than once. Meaning, I told them to spit it out, they denied it then finally got rid of it. A few minutes later, more gum/candy/paper chewing. From one girl, FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES, I had to ask her to spit out gum. Unbelievably rude. From girls that though sometimes have an attitude, are decent students and want to do well.

So, instead of getting to do something fun, I gave them a pop quiz. I had them put some phrases into correct dialogue form (with punctuation and quotations and stuff), I had them use homophones in sentences, I had them use alliteration in a sentence, I had them define 'infer.' I also asked them the capital of the United States and the number of continents. A bonus question asked the names of the Great Lakes.

Bwahaha! It was awesome. I felt a sense of 'ha, take THAT, brats!' They need to know that there are consequences to their misbehavior and disrespect. I need to remember this as a tool to help correct unwanted behavior.

Anyway, I joined a couple math teachers on a lunch run and then tried to organize my room to see parents.

We only had two hours, and I saw 18 parents. For a little bit, it was busy and rushed, but I caught up just fine.

The pain-in-the-ass mother that I've spoken of was there this afternoon. The first thing I told her was how great he's doing third quarter, and showed her that he's got over 100% (because he turned in some extra credit). We talked about his proposal grade (15/40--ouch), and I explained the requirements from the rubric that his work did not meet. She seemed to accept that. Then we got onto the holiday packet. Remember, her son forgot to bring in the multiple choice answers on the day it was due, only turning in the written portion.

Get this: She accused me of having a double standard. Because 1, I did not accept the thing the next day. (I did tell her that I agreed to compromise and give him half credit...but the administrators did not get it to me in time to include in the grade.) But 2, I pushed back the due date for the proposal--because of the blizzard.

So somehow, an act of GOD is on par with her son forgetting to turn in a goddamned piece of paper. If there was a flood or hurricane that prevented him from doing the homework, or being able to turn it in, then absolutely, he will get excused. But forgetting negates a fucking blizzard.

That is utter lunacy. Completely unrealistic and unreasonable. (Teachers and friends, let me know what you think, please. Maybe I'm the one being unreasonable...I firmly believe that I'm the sane one, but I love to get objective input.)

Of course, she went to meet with the AP about it. He came to me beforehand to find out what we talked about. I told him about the ridiculous double standard accusation.

There's nothing I can do about the grade now, because it's in the past, grades are in and whatever. If the admin decides to give in to her stupid demands, that's up to them, let them deal with it.

OKAY........

but other than that, the afternoon went very nicely. The parents understood where I was coming from, and admonished their kids for not doing the right thing, whatever it was. That support is good. I tell the parents, and the kids, "He/she/you are MORE than capable of doing the work. There's no reason that he/she/you should be anything other than a level 3, if not 4. He/she/you are just not doing the work!"

And then I put things back together and was out of there by 2.30. Sweet!

This morning I was not feeling well, so I moved kind of slow and got the late train. On that train, in the full and crowded car, some asshole man brings out his personal DVD player type thing, and plays music on it. THEN, he plays a sitcom or something. Outright noise. SO FUCKING RUDE!

Then, I got on the bus, also very crowded. Lo and behold, loud, obnoxious music playing again. Can you believe some people?