Teachers have feelings too!

So we're nearing the end of first semester. I think it's pretty amazing that the year has flown by in the fashion that it has. The little darlings that once charmed me are really starting to give me a run for money.

They've also gotten much more honest.

The other day one student told me he was bored with the vocabulary and he didn't feel like doing it anymore.

Another student that same day told me he felt it unreasonable to require someone to read outside of class, if we were already doing reading in class.

There's the occasional, "why are we doing this?" and the ""Do I really have to?"

The best came from a student just the other day, "Mrs. Jaeger, you're pretty cool, so why would you teach such a boring subject?"

I am convinced that our students think of their teachers as inhuman. Robots, trained to meet their academic needs and make their lives difficult. They certainly never consider that a teacher might have feelings just like them. We have feelings too! We also go grocery shopping, so get over it!

After a while you begin to feel a little unappreciated, thinking, "I'm sorry my class does not feel like a circus where you are always and immediately entertained."

Some sayings I've adopted since the beginning of the school year...

1. "Always assume it's for points."

2. "Do you know where you are? This is school. That's what we do here."

3. "Boredom is a state of mind, what does that say about you?"

4. "Forgetting your pencil is about as silly as forgetting to wear your pants to school."

5. "You must be kidding."

6. "You don't really need to go to the bathroom, you're just bored."

7. "Do you hear that? (Silence, kids look around, confused struggling to hear something.) That's what I want this time to sound like."

8. "Don't think I can't see you crouched behind the library shelf, I am aware, I am always aware!"

Oh teaching, you are a funny, funny profession.

On a more technological note, I am introducing Blackboard to all my students after the new year. Let you know how that goes. They recently got e-mail and they are loving sending meaningless messages. Each morning I pleasantly greeted by a student e-mail reading something like this:

whut up Mrs. Jeager (incorrectly spelled, even after all this time) youz tizzight. I hope we gets us a snowday, for shurzzz. pEEEEEEACe out!!!!!!!!!!!!

c ya girl.

We will be working on e-mail etiquette after the new year. :)