THIS GUY.....

There is a psychiatrist that comes to my school to work with like 5 kids in the building. He sees them on a one-to-one basis and rarely leaves his room otherwise. On his way in or out of the building, he'll yell at random children, calling them "smart asses" and randomly telling them to go away.
I don't really know him...nobody does. He keeps to himself.
They put him in my room for standardized testing to "proctor" or help me out with pencil passing out and whatever else. He came in 30 seconds before the test started, walked over to MY desk, sat in MY chair and read a book the entire time. He did not speak to me or the children even during breaks or after the test was over.
The next morning he came to my room before school to tell me that my children were "terrible" and he could have my tests invalidated because of their behavior.
I had NO clue what he was talking about. I've seen bad behavior too many times to count; my kids were great. I asked him what on earth he meant.
"While you weren't looking, the tall boy and the tall girl were hitting at each other."
Why didn't you say anything to them?
This man says to me, "They weren't trying to usurp MY authority, they were trying to usurp yours. It had nothing to do with me."
WELL CONSIDERING YOU SAID YOU WOULD INVALIDATE THEIR TEST SCORES MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING.
And also, I'm soooo glad you have all those degrees Mr. Psychiatrist, but I'm fairly certain that two 8th graders flirting with each other has NOTHING TO DO WITH ME.

I asked him if there was anything else considering they were so "terrible." Nope..they're just terrible. Looking at each other. Nodding. "Supposedly" someone had their cellphone out but I don't know how I--the person who stared at them the whole time they were testing--didn't see it but he--the person who read a book the whole time they were testing--did.

They should really be ashamed of themselves.

He also said that he wouldn't speak to them because they don't know who he is. Hey, I'm no genius but I have an idea. Maybe if you speak to them they'll know who you are? Crazy, I know.

F is for Failure (Us, Not Her)

This girl, Ashley. She has some serrrrrrrrrrrious issues. I don't really know what I"m talking about, but she seems pretty manic to me. She's either incredibly morose and quiet, barely talking and not very communicative.
Other times (sometimes the next day, sometimes the next hour, sometimes the next minute) she is completely uncontrollable, running around with a crazy look in her eyes. She'll scream and yell and pull her hair. You can't touch her or talk to her. It's so bad even the other kids ignore her when she gets like that. "She wants you to chase her, Miss Vinson."
I don't have any idea what kind of help she needs but I'm 100% certain she needs some.
I was told today that the only way she can get any help whatsoever is if she fails all her classes next quarter.

%@*#!!!!

A couple of months ago, my best friend the 8th grade administrator decided there were going to be no end of the year activities for the 8th graders. People kindof nodded their heads and went on their way. Well, it's the middle of March now and it's looking like there's REALLY not going to be any end of the year activities for the 8th graders. So we've all heard that they have decided to tear apart the school after the standardized testing is over (next Tuesday.)

We (the 7th grade teachers) want to make sure our babies don't get involved with that craziness, so we had a meeting with them yesterday. We told them that we have a trip to Six Flags planned, a skating trip and a picnic. We also threw in a movie day and game day during April. We talked to them about appropriate behaviors and showed them the behavior checklist that all teachers will be keeping. We explained that we are specifically targeting those who: use profanity, bring cell phones or other electronic devices, bully or tease, come to school out of uniform and skip class.

This one girl who thinks she 25 years old gets super offended and tells the principal that it's not fair for us to mark down every time they curse and use it against them to keep them out of a field trip.

So Principal says, "I'm not talking about if you curse at each other, or just in general. I don't care about that, some of you, it's just a part of your vocabulary. I'm talking about cursing OUT a teacher. Don't do that. That's what we're worried about."

UM, no sorry. I'm also worried about the cursing in general. Look, I curse. Sometimes my feelings cannot be properly expressed with a "darn it!" But I don't curse when I know I'm not supposed to, like in church, at my grandma's, at school, etc. I just don't understand the mentality that we know they don't have any self-control and that's okay. No. We're going to LEARN self-control. In my classroom, I tell them not to curse EVERY.TIME. they curse. I also tell them not to say "I swear to God." And, THEY DON'T. Every now and then, someone will curse and say, "Oh, I'm sorry Miss Vinson."

I mean, even if you are going to be lenient about it, don't come right out and SAY you are. DUHHHH.

"Is the NAACP that thing for astronauts?"


"...you mean NASA?"

What's the Plan, Stan?

Yeah. Today we were supposed to start standardized testing. We had this big meeting last week where we found out the revised schedule (testing for 3 hours, 45 minute periods afterwards.) We were strictly told not to plan lessons because the students will be tired from the testing. Today was supposed to be "Sports Day" where we take the kids outside and played sports trivia inside. Tomorrow was "Game Day", etc. It was a big plan and a big deal and everybody had it all worked out.

At 7:30a.m., we got the announcement that we aren't starting standardized testing until TOMORROW, so go ahead and "practice skills" for one more day. Considering we started the morning with not a single teacher having any idea what they were going to do with children all day, I'm just glad we all survived.

I Should Feel Bad But It Serves Her Right

Apparently some kids heard my little dispute with the 8th Grade Asst. Principal. (I guess they were in around the corner or something...if she had been using a normal person's voice they wouldn't have heard.)
And they told the entire 8th grade that those kids aren't being moved because I fussed out Ms. Belton.
HA.

Second Worst Parent Conference Ever

Yesterday was a half-day for students. Teachers stayed for parent conferences. We do this every quarter and nobody ever comes. About 30 of my old students showed up though and it was pretty great.

But in the early afternoon, the other 7th grade teacher came to get me because Keenon's mom was there.
Keenon is in my first period and he's been at our school for about a month. He's most definitely ADHD but he's not a bad kid. In my room at least, he talks ALL THE TIME. To himself, to other kids, to the wall, whatever. I do like him though. He's one of those kids where you know they don't really respond to yelling, so you just kindof have to "Keenon, sssh." "Oohmybadmissvinson". Sometimes I have to sit beside him so he'll focus.

Apparently in Language Arts and Math, he's a holy terror. I guess they don't really get down with the whole "no yelling" thing and this makes Keenon lose his mind. The Language Arts teacher is the kind of person who always has to win and assert authority. I guess it gets pretty ugly in there.

I came in and said my piece. "Keenon's a talker. He's not disrespectful, he's a nice kid, but he distracts himself and others and he really needs to focus."

Language Arts Teacher: "Well, I don't know what kind of perfume Miss Vinson is wearing to make you be so good for her..." (WTF?)

The teacher and Keenon started arguing. That lasted for about ten minutes with lots of teacher looks to the mother: "you see what I mean?" and a lot of Keenon saying, "she lying on me, ma!" The math teacher joined in (there were EIGHT adults in this meeting. I'm the only one who said anything remotely positive...hmmm, maybe it's not my perfume?)

Towards the end, Keenon's mom starts yelling, Keenon starts crying and she says,

"YOU ARE GOING TO BE NOTHING! NOTHING! YOU WILL BE NOTHING IN YOUR LIFE!" while chasing him around the room. She then said she had to go to work and was leaving him there and she hoped he had a way to get home.

Semi-Annual Verbal Altercation With Administration? CHECK!

WHEW.
Okay, so.
Today the acting 8th grade Asst. Principal decided that 5 of the eighth graders were acting so terrible that they were going to be put back into 7th grade. Go ahead and re-read that sentence so it's full meaning can take effect.

And can you believe I had the nerve to be upset about this? And not only did she decide this, she didn't even TELL us. This kid shows up in my room yelling something about how he "got a paper to be here, ya heard?" Um...what? He then says, "it don't matter cause I'm suspended anyways but when I get back I'm this class." And he left.
I step into the hallway as this Asst. Principal is walking by. "Ms. Belton, can I talk to you for just a second?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Are you seriously putting 8th graders back into 7th grade?"
"Yes we are."
"Ms. Belton. First off, it's March. And it's not fair to me or my students to h---"

(She holds her hand up to me and does the "shut your mouth" motion with it")"No. No. No. No. You don't know what unfair is!"

"You can't keep screwing these kids over like---"

"NO! If anybody gets screwed over in this building, it's ME and you don't know what you're talking about!"

"Ms. Belton? Can I spea---"

"No You CANNOT SPEAK. NO."

"Maybe we can have this conversation when you realize I'm an adult and not a child?"

At this point, another administrator came up and told me that she would take care of the situation and we can talk about it later. I thanked her for helping me out and understanding my point.

After school, the 8th grade team went to Principal and bitched and moaned because now they can't get rid of these kids. Principal was actually reasonable for once in her life and told them it was too late in the year for such a move. They left all huffy.

Ms. Belton was in the office. It was around 4pm, about 3 hours after our little altercation. I went to her and said,

"Ms. Belton, I know we disagree, but I don't want to have any ill feelings toward you and I want us to be okay. I'm sorry for what happened earlier and I hope we can talk about this without---"

She turns to me, looks me in the face and says, "The NEXT time I tell you to shut-up, you better SHUT. UP."

"You know what Ms. Belton? I'm going to give you some time. I'll come back to you tomorrow and see how you're doing."

Small Talk

Yesterday, do you know what I did instead of teaching? I sat in the corner of my room with Raekwon and talked with him about his weekend.
I've talked about Raekwon before (and one day I'll learn to link to previous posts...) He's the one who's two different people.
He was super mega crazy off yesterday. He got suspended, but again, they couldn't get in touch with a parent, so he was sent back to class. Actually, he was pushed into my room by an administrator who then slammed the door in his face. Awesome.
He then proceeds to attempt to fly around my room (arms stretched out and running) all the while shouting at no one "Suck my dick!" "Fuck this shit!" "Sonofabitch!" "Fart Fart Fart Fart" I finally corral him into a seat but he's still spazzing out. I step back into the hallway and say, Uhhhhhh administrator? Looney Tunes over there is really not working out. Since he's already suspended, do you think you could do something with him so I can teach my kids?

"Just ignore him. That's why he's doing it...he wants attention."

I'm sorry, but my couple of sweet, wonderful kids really shouldn't have to try to work through his craziness. They deserve to be in a room without profanity and insanity.

So, my only option was to give him what he wanted--attention. I put the kids to group work and sat down with him. "How was your weekend?" "What'd you do?" "What's your favorite TV show?" And he was calm and collected and talked to me the whole time. He didn't say another curse word or do anything inappropriate. I mean, what else was I supposed to do?

Oh, Well, If He SAID So...

So there's the big mystery/drama going down at the school. Someone has paintball pellets, and they are throwing them at people/walls/anything. This person threw one during class change time and hit one of my students in the leg and splattered paint everywhere. I took the evidence to the office and reported the situation.
Principal came around to all the 7th grade classes and bitched them out ("WHEN we find this person, not IF, you will be EXPELLED. If you know who it is, tell them and you can get a reward.etc.,etc.) Nobody said anything. We weren't even 100% sure it was a 7th grader.
Until lunch when somebody threw some more, and only 7th graders were in there. So, we've narrowed it down. During 3rd period, three boys came to me and said, "Ms. Vinson, we don't want the reward or anything, but Quamonta is the one with the paintballs. Don't tell anyone we told you."
So, I go to Principal, tell her what the kids told me.
She calls Quamonta to the office and soon afterward he goes back to class.
I see her in the office this afternoon:

"Well, he said he didn't do it so it wasn't him."

Wow. This detective stuff is way easier than I thought.