Overheard, About Me

My former students are more than happy to share things which other students say about me.  Sometimes those things are nice or supportive or funny, and other times they tell me the really shitty things students say behind my back.

Here's a request:  if you have something to say to or about me, have the courage to say it to my face instead of being a whiny bitch (male or female).

Here are a few things I heard today, about myself:

• Apparently, some of the more advanced classes have group chats which only include members of the class.  This is where I read a thread about me which certain people were sharing while in class last year, which said (among other things) that I am a bitch, I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm annoying, I don't care, I'm a terrible teacher, and so on.  I know most of this hatred stemmed from only a couple of people in the room, but their poisonous attitude made that class unbearable.  By the end of the year, I DIDN'T like them, because they were actively fake bitches every day.
• Another kid keeps telling everyone that he despises me, because of my personality.  (Funny, he seemed just fine until he was failing, and his parents took away his privileges, and then he dropped.)
• Next, I (apparently) like female students better than males, because the males "all get worse grades" on their assignments.  Simply not true, but if the boys are in a mouth-breathing cluster in the corner of the room, not listening to me, and hitting on girls, then their grades might not be great.  
• Another:  my grading system is "arbitrary".  I don't know where that's coming from, because they're told what is expected of them.  They get feedback (which some refuse to read).  I have rubrics.  They get directions.  (I think they're just bitching to bitch.)
• Oh, and apparently I hate Mormons.  Either that, or I teach in direct contradiction to the Mormon belief system.  Or something.  I have no idea on this one either, because while I do think religions are mostly made-up rule books, I don't say things like that in school - ever.  

So, thanks, kids, more making me want to quit this job more than ever.  What started out as a missionary, life-goal 20+ years ago has turned into a daily grind because of the growing groups of self-entitled narcissists, who think they deserve an A simply because they show up to school most of the time.  

I Don't Ask Why No More

Interstellar.

In Between.

In the spaces in between the spaces. 

Lost in a semicolon.

I'm not asking why no more.

It's not the past no more.

I was digging a hole.

     (I had a shovel the whole time, but I still don't no quite how to use it to dig out of my own self.)

Overheard, At A High School

One half of one week of school has passed, and here are some of the most "interesting" things I've heard so far:

• "You can only skeet in a girl in Walmart."
• "If abortion becomes illegal, the women who do it under the radar deserve to die."
• "Just call me diabetes boy.  Or, if I like you, I can be your diabetes buddy.  Here's the thing:  I wear cool shoes, because I'm gonna die early."
• "Liberals are the anti-Christ."
• "Conservatives embody the ideology of Hitler."
• "Donald Trump is worse than Hitler, because he (Hitler) was more effective at getting rid of people who shouldn't be alive."
• "White people suck - all the white cops are racists."
• "Huck Finn fucking sucked.  I hate Mark Twain."
• "Life would be worthless without Instagram."
• "I just met this girl, and I can tell she's a slut."
• "If the projector explodes, I will just turn my wrists toward the shrapnel, because being at school makes me want to die."
• "Holden Caulfield is a whiny bitch.  I don't need to hear that shit."
• "Why does the black guy in Huck Finn keep talking like a n****r?"
• "History is bullshit, because people suck.  They won't ever not suck."
• "If growing up means feeling like shit all the time, I'd rather go out on a meth binge."
• "Educated people are better at manipulating people and getting what they want.  Doesn't matter if it's good or bad."
• "Nobody is ever satisfied.  It's the human condition."
• "All immigrants do is have babies.  It's like they don't know what birth control is."
• "Gatsby was so fucking delusional that he ended up dead in the bottom of his own pool."
• "School is, like the worst part of the year.  All I want to do is go to bed.  Or get high."

I'm just sayin' ... high school is a strange place, full of daydreams and angst. 

Teaching

If you're interested in what the life of a high school teacher is like, you should check out Teaching 1080 (Hours).

teaching1080.blogspot.com