We figured it out

So another harrowing day with "new guy". I'm walking down the hall and there are two girls sitting on the floor outside the room while shrieks and hollers are coming from inside. I ask them what they're doing there and they say " Mr. Newguy said we can sit here and talk out a problem we're having." Now, first of all in our school is is a GIANT no no to leave any kids unattended, second if every seventh grade girl that was having minor drama was allowed to sit in the hall and talk it out, we would have zero female students in class. If there was a SERIOUS issue we have mediators for that. If it were serious, and they started punching each other, pray tell who would be there to break it up?

The ELL teacher who works with him evrey morning with the English language learning students summed it up and it's the vibe I've been getting since he started. She said "He's decided it isn't his responsibility. These are just "city" kids who run wild and have no manners. It's just how they are." SHE IS SO RIGHT. He's seemed very smug since he started and she so hit it.

If HE can't keep them under control they must be uncontrollable. He seems oblivious to the fact that when they're in our rooms they're sitting and learning. In his mind it's obviously something wrong with the kids, not him.

The kids are tough. I'll give him that, but they're also very smart. They KNOW what you think of them and give back to you accordingly. Until he changes his mind about them, nothing is gonna change in that room.

Parent Meetings

When they talk back to their parents during a meeting and the parent just looks dumbfounded at what to do about it, you know you're not gonna get much help there.

(sigh)

I know you are but what am I?

I just feel like talking bout the fact that in my experience middle school teachers become as immature as the children they teach in their spare time.

Yesterday for example, I was walking down the hallway minding my own business when I suddenly felt a solid, painful "thud" between my shoulder blades. I turned around to see an orange rolling away behind me. Apparently my colleague was very excited to see me. Rather than saying "hey there" using the voice he was given to alert others to his presence, he explained when he saw me "he had to throw something", and felt like the orange was a better choice than the chocolate milk he had in his other hand. I reminded him that although the orange may have been better than the milk, and that people in prison beat each other with bags of oranges. Oranges are dense. Oranges are not gentle projectiles.

The other latest trend is for members of one team to put clothespins on members of other teams in awkward places. Why? Just so other people will come up and ask them why they have a clothespin randomly stuck to whatever location it may be in. Preferable somewhere embassing like dangling from the center of one's ass.

Also, once you become a middle school teacher you can no longer handle words like, balls, homo sapiens, rod, thrust etc. without falling apart.

This is all better than three years ago when the male teachers had a very questionable game in which they would whip their lanyards with keys at each others junk, the most prized score was between the legs from behind. So one guy would be dry heaving, hunched over with tears in his eyes while the rest stood around high fived each other and giggled. One of those participants just had a baby, so i guess his parts turned out ok, but I was worried for a little while.

I'm back, no...really

So I'm starting this back up because i need SOMEWHERE to vent.

This year is going to be a doozy. We have a fresh crop of very flip mouthed, bass-ass, little darlings. These things seem to run on a three year cycle. Every three years we get a disproportionate numbers of little shits. Don't get me wrong, I do well with little shits, in fact you might say I love getting them because it's a challenge to turn them around BUT one can only take on so many challenges at once before they burn out. In particular we've got problems since two of our teams teachers aren't the best classroom managers and the brand new teacher has a borderline safety issue in his room. Someone is going to get hurt and I'm not kidding...

We've offered help, advice, etc. but new guy already seems to think he knows it all. In fact his statement was "this is going to be easy, I was a human resources manager". Welcome to my world. Adults who want to keep their jobs are far different from children who would much rather be doing childreny things, making out, or playing with tech decks than listen to someone drone on about whatever it is their droning about. The trick is you got to make them want it, especially with kids whoa re pains in the asses. You have to make them eager to step into your room to see what's gonna happen next. The second component is to carry yourself with complete and utter confidence. They need to think no matter what happens you'll know what to do next, and they might not like what you have in store for them if they make you go there...even when you have no fucking idea what's going on and what to do about it. Think fast, act fast, and act like you had the plan all along. It's a hard thing to teach someone else how to do, but all our successful teachers just seem to have it.

...anyway where I'm going with this is that myself and some other seasoned folk are having to deal with hallways gone wild cause this guy cannot contain children in his room. And whatever it is he says to them leaves them so crazy it takes us double effort to calm them down and get their heads strait, so we're feeling like we're managing two classes at once. Administration knows about this yet they still leave us to deal with the mess...and if I don't deal with it and leave it be, there are children screaming and screeching outside my door so it's near impossible to focus on what we're trying to do anyway. Last period the kids in his room literally start chanting screaming, throwing stuff to a degree I have rarely seen. We go in and calm them down but as soon as we step foot out of the room, it's a free for all.

So that's where we're at this year, wish me the best, because I feel like I'm working WAY too hard.