It's Tough to Teach Students Taller Than You.
In all honesty, I wish I had more time to post more than once a week…but teaching is incredibly, amazingly exhausting. The week, as a whole, has been trying and I find myself hardening a bit to the taunts and troubles of my students. I no longer pause when a student calls me racist. I have no trouble giving no credit to students I catch cheating. (Though that makes me racist.)
Seriously, some days I just want to raise my hands to the sky and scream out my frustration. And some days are really worth it; for instance, Friday most of my class walked out before dismissal (Well, because they can…whose going to physically stop them?) but there was only myself and three students, and we played 45 minutes of pictionary. I had a really good time, and so did they.
The most trying human I have in my classroom is 15 year old Lavina. First off, she’s half a foot taller than me, black, and extremely angry. She doesn’t live with her mother, and the only contact number I have is her sister…who laughed at me on the phone. Lavina is pretty crazy, her first day of class had her storming around the room, trying to pick a fight with the only other female in the class. (Mind you, up until Lavina’s arrival this girl, Ronnie, was giving me the most trouble. But now she’s a fine student, with the bigger, meaner dog in the junkyard.) By the second day she was in a fight with a “Puerto Rican bitch with a bad weave.” She’s threatened me almost everyday, and let me say that the hardest thing I’ve done in three weeks of teaching was not back up when Lavina got up in my personal space trying to scare me. Made me hate being short.
The best thing I can do is keep showing up, not back down, not freak out. Eventually, most of the kids will stop giving me trouble.
I hope.
Seriously, some days I just want to raise my hands to the sky and scream out my frustration. And some days are really worth it; for instance, Friday most of my class walked out before dismissal (Well, because they can…whose going to physically stop them?) but there was only myself and three students, and we played 45 minutes of pictionary. I had a really good time, and so did they.
The most trying human I have in my classroom is 15 year old Lavina. First off, she’s half a foot taller than me, black, and extremely angry. She doesn’t live with her mother, and the only contact number I have is her sister…who laughed at me on the phone. Lavina is pretty crazy, her first day of class had her storming around the room, trying to pick a fight with the only other female in the class. (Mind you, up until Lavina’s arrival this girl, Ronnie, was giving me the most trouble. But now she’s a fine student, with the bigger, meaner dog in the junkyard.) By the second day she was in a fight with a “Puerto Rican bitch with a bad weave.” She’s threatened me almost everyday, and let me say that the hardest thing I’ve done in three weeks of teaching was not back up when Lavina got up in my personal space trying to scare me. Made me hate being short.
The best thing I can do is keep showing up, not back down, not freak out. Eventually, most of the kids will stop giving me trouble.
I hope.
posted by Ms. C at 12:35 PM
1 Comments:
Well I stopped back into your blog to see how things were going. Hoping that they might be going better. Although I am sorry to see they arent much better than before. I do hope for your sake things get better with the students with time. Hey don't let their height intimidate ya...Just remember the small ones are scrappy ;)Take care
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