I got to school today and realized that
I wasn’t getting into my classroom. My doorknob has been a pain in
the ass since December. You have to jiggle the key in the lock to get
it to work. The janitors have been aware of it for a while. I went to
get one of the custodians, and he couldn’t get into it. He said he
would have to get the maintenance guys here to replace it. I finally
got a new doorknob, but I was out of a classroom. I went to the ICN
room, which is normally empty. Lucky for my students I can teach
without materials, which is what I did for the first three periods.
I had the secretaries call my thieving
senior boys to that room before school. Only one showed up, so I
explained to him what was going to happen. I told him after senior
graduation practice he was going to the office and paying for those
purchases that were made with the school credit card. If they weren’t
taken care of today, I would take it to higher authorities like the
principal and their parents. I told him that I was giving him a
chance to do the right thing. He is an adult, and should start acting
like it really quick. I finished that by asking him what he was
thinking. He had his head down and he just said he was sorry. The
other student never showed up, so I’m guessing the word got to him.
I asked the secretary if they showed up to pay the money. She said
they both took care of it. I had gotten invitations from both of them
for their graduation receptions. I threw them away today. I didn’t
think I could go to them and see their families, and not say
anything. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that they
thought they wouldn’t get caught.
 |
| Students finished planting |
In the middle of third hour today I got
back into my room with a new doorknob. First hour I wanted the students to finish planting flowers in front
of the school for graduation, but I couldn’t get at the flowers in
my greenhouse. Instead I reviewed the concepts for their final in a
few days. If there is one thing I’ve learned from teaching it’s
to be flexible and have multiple plans. When I got back to the middle
school I went to the library and found some students to help me plant
the front of the school for graduation. We had 20 minutes to plant
it, but it got done without a minute to spare. I noticed that the
students that volunteered were my students, but others were from the
after school program. When students know me and a relationship is in
place they will do things for me that they wouldn’t normally do for
other teachers. I will miss that. If they know I’ve been wronged
they will fight for me. My first year of teaching I knew I belonged
here because the students were so loyal to me. The last day of school
that first year a community member yelled at me for having the
student’s plant flowers in the wrong place. She did this after I
sent all the students back to the classroom and the flowers were
planted. She made me cry, and I had to get it together and go back to
my class and teach. The stude
nts knew something was wrong, and one of
them overheard what the community member had said. That one student
told the rest of the class, and they left my classroom, and
threatened to use Round-Up herbicide on her entire professionally
landscaped yard for me. Administration heard about it and went to the
community member, and I got an apology from that community member.
That same administrator had me talk to those students in my class to
talk them down from doing anything wrong against this community
member. It’s those memories that have held me here this long. I
have so many bad memories of community members and administrators
giving me hell, but for every bad memory is a great one of a student
trying to defend me, or they give me an example of their loyalty.
I know I made the right decision
because there will be no one giving me hell, unless it’s my
husband, someone from my own gene pool, or my offspring.
No comments:
Post a Comment