Ms. S- the mean veggie-eater

First week of school!

Thoughts:

• holy crap. teaching is HARD
• Structure and consequences are your friend
• I have to keep saying the mantra "even though your kids degrade, disrespect, and try to make you hate yourself, you are a loving, valuable person" to keep from feeling like a failure 
• It's only going to get easier... right?
• it's only TUESDAY? when will friday be here?
• smile? no way- not until December. I thought that wouldn't be my teaching style, but it HAS to be in order for me to have any sort of control over the classroom.
• If I would be this kind of teacher in the North- I would be fired. 
• YOU CRAZY CHILDREN JUST BE QUIET FOR TWO MINUTES SO I CAN THINK STRAIGHT

Anecdotes:

• During lunch, I am in charge of the class with the worst behavior in the school. Even the veteran teachers have bad management days with them. So, during lunch I don't get to sit down and enjoy my food like the other teachers- I'm on edge and ready to jump in and correct poor decisions. Usually I pace in a circle around the table so I can keep them all in line. This isn't conducive to a varied lunch choice- so usually i bring a bunch of veggies to munch on. This is pretty normal in Madison to eat raw food. NOT in the delta. The kids and the faculty are so confused by it. I brought a bag of sugar snap peas to eat during a meeting and my principal looked at me and said " Now I KNOW you're not going to eat those raw" and looked like she was going to pass out when I started munching on them. The kids can't even identify what most of the veggies are (so sad!!) One student thought that my carrots were cheetos. Another student thought my peas were okra, and they were just confused when I brought in a red pepper to munch on. Many of them ask "How do you eat that without it being boiled first and people forcing you to eat it?" I tell them that veggies are really tasty plain without being cooked - they don't believe me. 

• My kids are babies when it comes to temperature. Our rooms are programmed at 72 degrees. Pretty typical. They whine and try to bury themselves in their shirts because they're cold. There has been so many times where I have to tell a student that they aren't a turtle and to get their arms and head out of their shirt and start working. 

• My students have this issue (probably because of the crappy food they eat) of having to pass gas ALL THE TIME in my classes. I was super confused the first time a frantic student called me over and asked to "step outside in the hallway cause they were bout to lose their manners". I was thinking that they had an anger issue and were going to explode, but they explained "no m'am, I just have to fart really bad and it's gon' smell." I don't let them out because then half of them would be in the hallway during my class. So- I asked other teachers what they do to solve this problem. They told me- just use spray. Keep spray in your classroom and go spray it by the student so you don't have to stop teaching. So that's what I do. On my teacher desk in the front of my classroom, I have my behavior chart, my sticky notes, my markers, and my spray. All within arm's reach. It works wonders. I never would have anticipated this problem...

So the first week is over. I survived (barely, at times) and not without much stress, anxiety, and tears. But I made it through. My classroom management still needs to step up- some kids think that I'm 'soft' and this is an issue. But when I put my foot down and am what I consider and perceive to be the most heartless, ruthless, borderline mean and angry teacher possible- they are perfect angels. The culture is just so different- this kind of teaching is what they respond to. I don't know if that's good or bad thing- it is what it is. 

It's going to be a long, hard year. This last week was harder than all of college combined. I'm convinced.