My mom tells me that she has always loved me and always will, but she didn’t really like me when I was in sixth grade. I never really understood her comment, until I began teaching sixth grade full time. It takes a strong person to teach all sixth graders, all day, and I’m not sure I’m that person. This past week was a real struggle to keep my cool. My kids (students) just didn’t want to keep their mouths closed long enough for me to explain anything and we fell behind.
I have NEVER struggled with classroom management. My classes have always known how to act in my presence, whether we were in my classroom or I was covering another teacher’s class. The students knew who I was and I never had any issues, at least not big ones. This year, the students are very well behaved for me whenever I cover another class, but my own classroom; ahhhhh! They don’t do anything physically wrong, it’s their talking and their meanness to each other. Their inappropriate questions or the questions they already know the answers to that they still ask.
For example, I was teaching a lesson, about a novel we were reading and a young lady raises her had and asks, “Mrs. D, what happened to your eye?”. I have no idea where that question came from; it had nothing to do with what I was teaching them. She didn’t ask me in the beginning of class or wait till class was over. SERIOUSLY!!! This is not the first time this particular lady has asked me an inappropriate question and it’s not the last time since that day.
Another student, just this past Friday asked me a question they knew the answer to. I was explaining an assignment and the kids were asking what colored ink they could use on their final draft of their report. They know, but I explained again, it’s blue or black ink if they write it by hand and black printer ink if they are typing it out. Yet, a student raised his hand, waited for me to call on him (instead of just calling it out to be funny) and asked, “What if we use invisible ink?” SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!
I deal with these types of questions every day, every class. It no wonder I haven’t lost my sanity. I have another student who is very passive aggressive. When ever he has a smart aleck comment to make, he says it under his breath hoping you won’t hear it. Of course, I have mommy hearing and I always hear it and he got a extreme talking to this past Friday. This is the same kid who came to my desk at the beginning of class and said, “I read one, but can’t remember the title. And the second one I’ve only read six chapters.” From that information he expected me to know that he had forgotten the first book he had read from the list of Summer Reading Books and he was only through six chapters of his second choice. So, how was he supposed to complete the assigned book report? There is a list he is supposed to read four books from and take quizzes on by Winter Break. An assignment that was first given in June and then reiterated with an extended due date in early September. This student just couldn’t understand why I couldn’t comprehend what he was trying to ask me with all the information he gave me. SERIOUSLY!!!!!
These are the actions of the students that make me wonder if I’m a good teacher. It doesn’t matter if I am one of the teachers at a school that’s state test scores are the second highest in the state. It doesn’t matter if my students’ writing has massive improvement by the time they leave my class. It doesn’t matter if my daily tutoring sessions are the push a student needs to improve in my class enough to actually pass. It doesn’t matter that I give up my free lunch time, four times a week, for my students to make up zeros they have in the grade book. It is a week like last week that makes every part of me want to walk out and never return. But I won’t do that, I would never quit on my co-workers and my students. I would never leave my students in the beginning, the middle, or the end of the school year to adjust to a new teacher. I would never do that and my students know I would never do that. And that is why I know I’m a good teacher.