LIFE
It might be my middle age. It might be my empty nesting, It might be that I no longer have responsibility raising kids but instead responsibility in caring for aging mothers and a grandmother (age 101). I long to express my inner ramblings as I muddle through life. Somehow I know that reflecting through this blog will in some way help me to make sense of this chaotic world. I once read that we view the world from the underside of an embroidered piece. Many of you know that place, where all of the strings hang and it is difficult to make out the pattern of the embroidery. God views the world from the embroidered side. Only he can see from his view point the beauty that the chaos is becoming. Many times I long to see that pattern so I can enjoy the view. For now when I am enjoying the view, I content myself with singing loudly and quite off key when no one is around. This occurs usually in the kitchen as I am doing dishes or cooking and in yesterday's case, when my husband was still in the field trying to get the corn combined. Yesterday was a singing kind of day because I had joyous news that my dear friend who thought she had breast cancer does not have to go back to the doctor for six months. She said it was her own personal miracle. I took her miracle personally and sang, "My soul rejoice!" Love those miracles!
TEACHING
So this may be the real reason I wanted to blog this evening. For those with middle school teaching experience, you know full well of the bipolar type of teaching existence one has when working with middle school students. One day can be filled with students telling you, "You are one cool and rocking teacher!" (words I heard yesterday) And the next day words tumble forth that let you know you are on the LEAST FAVORED list of teachers. Today the latter occurred as I emailed two sets of parents describing the disrespectful behavior of their child they had birthed. One email I sent read:
PARENT NAME (removed),
I called and left a voice message but also wanted to follow up with an email. Your son (name removed) owes me three nights of detention (3:20-4:00) for extreme disrespect in my class today. I told him he needed to redo an assignment because his grade was poor (14/36). He began to talk back and yell that all teachers think they have the power and that I was in a bad mood and took it out on him. I cannot have a student be so disrespectful in class. I finally sent him out but he needs to make up time for me. He wasted my class time by disturbing everyone including me. I also want him to write an apology letter to me. I know this probably seems lame but he needs to understand that a teacher also has feelings and I am leaving school very upset today because of how he ruined my class. I would appreciate your help with this matter.
Mrs. Me
I especially like the part about teachers having feelings. He was wrong about the part of me being in a bad mood and taking it out on him...but I tell you bad mood is what I ended up being in by the end of class. Just thinking about it still puts me in a very bad mood! John Dewey said: "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." I would like to alter this to read: "Teaching is not preparation for life; teaching is life itself." Those who teach know that you live it...you can prepare all you want for hours on end but it's the living it within the classroom that brings it to life.
PARENT NAME (removed),
I called and left a voice message but also wanted to follow up with an email. Your son (name removed) owes me three nights of detention (3:20-4:00) for extreme disrespect in my class today. I told him he needed to redo an assignment because his grade was poor (14/36). He began to talk back and yell that all teachers think they have the power and that I was in a bad mood and took it out on him. I cannot have a student be so disrespectful in class. I finally sent him out but he needs to make up time for me. He wasted my class time by disturbing everyone including me. I also want him to write an apology letter to me. I know this probably seems lame but he needs to understand that a teacher also has feelings and I am leaving school very upset today because of how he ruined my class. I would appreciate your help with this matter.
Mrs. Me
I especially like the part about teachers having feelings. He was wrong about the part of me being in a bad mood and taking it out on him...but I tell you bad mood is what I ended up being in by the end of class. Just thinking about it still puts me in a very bad mood! John Dewey said: "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." I would like to alter this to read: "Teaching is not preparation for life; teaching is life itself." Those who teach know that you live it...you can prepare all you want for hours on end but it's the living it within the classroom that brings it to life.
That ends my first entry,
Mom
it's not true....you also sing out of tune when people are around.
ReplyDelete^^
also, beat this: one of my students put his hands at his chest (like boobs) and shook them up and down at me while he thought i wasn't looking. true story.