bye bye anger, hello peace and calm

I was out of school, wed, Thursday, and Friday. It was a good break from the kiddos. I did a lot of reflecting, worrying if I can handle teachings, and sleeping. All in all it was mentally and emotionally productive; however, I did not grade any papers when I was sick. Grades for 3rd quarter were due yesterday. I graded all day and most of the night from 12:30pm-2:30 am!!!!!!!!! I only took bathroom breaks and of course a Bojangles run for dinner. I didn't check my email and I read no blogs, which are my usual procrastinating tricks. I graded 70 essays, 105 test (55 were scantron so that was easy), 47 homeworks, and about 20 projects. I never want to put off grading again. I will also never have grades from the last week count for the same quarter. I need to close out grades before the last week. I had to give 4 incomplete, because students didn't make up their tests yet. I have one girl who I think has been absent for all of my tests.

Anyways, I feel a lot better today and classes went more smoothly. I stayed clam and said it would be a new quarter and a clean slate and i modified the classroom rules. Miss Hoffman will not tolerate sassing back!!!

STRESSED, ANGRY, IMPATIENT!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!

Annoying students - won't take no for an answer, everything has to be argued, debated, questioned, whatever.

Quarter is ending, grading is never ending.

Things i think and wish I could say, but know are wrong and horrible and would never say them:

Stop wasting class time with your immature, ignorant, intolerant, purposefully button-pushing, ridiculous questions and for 5 minutes stay on task.

JUST DEAL!!! I dont care if you think it is unfair.

Do something the 1st time I ask it, dont make me repeat it.

READ THE DIRECTIONS, they answer 99% percent of your questions, because if I hear any of the following one more time I think I will kill someone:

when is it due?
does it have to be typed?
how many points if this worth?
what do we need to do?
does it need to be in complete sentences?
are any of the words in the word bank used more than once?
are you going to take off for spelling and grammar?
Do i have to write my honor pledge on this? Can i just write IPMH? (instead of "I pledge my honor that I have neither given nor received aid on this test/paper.")

"None of my other teachers care, we did it in my last class."
- I DONT CARE and IT DOESN"T MATTER! SHUT UP

Do your parents ever tell you "no", do always get whatever you want?

I dont care why you dont have your book or homework, you have known about it for 6 weeks, I tell you almost everyday to bring your book, you have been in high school for 6 months, dont you get it yet!!

If i dont get use to this or find a better system, I QUIT!!!! I will give it 3 years and there better be improvement, or its not worth it.

Maybe I will try grade school one day. But teaching high school is almost as bad as being in high school, and those were the worst years of my life!!

Someone, please make it stop, I am going nuts!!

Please pray for me!! I need it desperately.

Great another 30 minutes wasted, I should have been grading papers, I hope you enjoyed it. It is supposed to be funny, but sadly it is the reality of my life, and I am on the edge of despair and total break down.

At least I have a lot to talk about in therapy.

"Want to see a movie"

Tuesday, Al, a regular at Starbucks, passed me a note asking me if I wanted to see a movie. I was very unsettled and repulsed. Al is twice my age, greasy, loud, obnoxious, fat, New York italian and he has been divorced more than once (rumor says it is 5, but I doubt it is that high.) What was he thinking??? and a note, are we 10, should I check yes or no? Anyways, he came in twice yesterday and needless to say it was quite awkward.

I highly recommend watching this past week's Office, you can see it on Hulu. It was SOOO hilarious. I did some cleaning this weekend too. It felt good. Now I need to grade some tests, an unfortunate part of my job. I need to figure out how to do it faster (easier tests??) I also need to call all the Sbuxes and see if I can find a replacement for Saturday, so that I can go to Monica's bridal shower.

Funny/odd things the kids (my students) said this month include:

"Miss Hoffman this was the best class ever, I love it when teachers get hurt!"
( I didn't really get hurt, I was leaning on the podium. You can adjust the height on it. The lever was loose and it shrunk down to half my height and I nearly fell over it.)

"12 kids!!!, that must have been painful back then, especially without any drugs." (boy said this after we learned that Jacob had 12 sons)

"My mom stood over me and hit me in the back of the head until I finished my homework."
(this kid often mention his mom hitting him, he thinks it is funny, I dont)

One of my students like to say, "Miss Hoffman, that is not very nice!!" to me when I state various arbitrary opinions. For example, I said I didn't like long hair on boys or nose rings. I told her in reply, "Katie, I am allowed to have a preference in hair styles, it doesn't mean I hate people with long hair. " She also said it when I said I thought the Oscars were silly. Katie is kind of dits, and
this is starting to become her catch phrase.