Shaddup Already!





















2005-02-15

Now you care!

The kids just don't get it. Our math teacher, Thing 1 aka Ms. P, had a business day. The kids made their own business then sold stuff to other kids for the reward points I give out. I decided to join in with this by doing a persuasive writing unit ending in an advertisement.

That was a month or so ago.

Many students just didn't turn it in. Ms. P just recently threw away all the ads that were in her classroom since the kids obviously weren't going to pick them up. My deadline for turning them in was two weeks ago and that was for half credit. I told them that they were not going to be accepted after that.

So now many of my kids are failing. So I decided today to do a fun activity with my kids. I also decided that anyone who didn't turn in their ad would have to write me a five paragraph essay trying to persuade me to grade the essay in place of their ad. Some kids were pissed and now, all of the sudden, they cared that they no longer had ads.

Many of them were totally offended that Ms. P would throw them away. This after we have both been reminding them to pick them up. We both also told them several times that any left in there would be thrown away.

I had one class where everyone pouted and started saying how unfair it was. Wah, wah, wah.


D: I turned in my ad.

TL: Well I didn't get it, either you didn't have your name on it, you didn't get it from Ms. P or you didn't turn it in.

D: I turned it in way back when it was due. Remember, I asked you where to put it.

TL: (avoiding the smartass comeback about where to put something) Yes, I remember. Do you remember me saying that I took every single ad over to Ms. P's class and I hadn't graded them yet?

D: Yes. But I turned it in.

TL: Not to me you didn't.

D: I have it right here!

TL: Then you didn't turn it in.

D: L gave it to me.

L: Yeah, I got it out of the trash in Ms. P's room

TL: If you have it in your backpack, D, you did not turn it in. It is too late now to turn it in.

The class went on and after I told everyone they could pack up, D came up to talk to me.


D: My mom wants your phone number.

TL: Okay (writing down phone number in planner). Why?

D: I don't know, she just wants to talk to you.

TL: Are you asking for the phone number because you're upset about the ad and you want her to call me?

D: Yes.

TL: Why didn't you just say that?

D: Because I thought you were going to tell me that I wasn't taking responsibility again.

TL: (sigh) asking for a phone number has nothing to do with taking responsibility.

Your responsibility was to get your ad from Ms. P and bring it back to me.

D: Ms. P never gave me my ad.

TL: Did you ask for it?

D: No.

I want to retire. I'm so tired of this shit. These kids are making excuse after excuse and doing nothing for themselves. I could have hugged about five kids who just took a deep breath, admitted that they didn't do their ad and wrote the stinking essay. How hard is that?

Tomorrow I suspect I shall have a call from D's mother because he will have mistold the whole situation. I was going to call her this afternoon, but I figured "screw it" because I was hurting pretty badly. I don't know if she'll call me or not, but I decided not to create a problem where there wasn't one yet.

Oh yeah, Thing 1 has been less intense as of late. She has cut out a lot of the diet talk when I asked her to. So she isn't as bothersome as she was previously. However, she is trying to solve my back pain problem. That just really irritates me. People who have all the answers and really don't know anything about my situation. She was relating a disc problem to a pulled muscle.

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