Things You Think You'd Never Say

As a high school teacher, there are some things you just think you don't have to worry about saying: Wash your hands, don't pick your nose, whatever.

Sometimes we have to say them.

Today, I had to tell my juniors. That's right, MY JUNIORS not to smell each other's shoes.

Picture me smacking my head in disbelief.

Teenagers, man.

Oh, Romeo!

   Shakespeare is admittedly not my favorite. However, I do enjoy having students draw random characters to read throughout the play. I don't let them redraw if they're character doesn't align to their gender.

   I almost always end up with same sex Capulets and Montagues, and nearly always a gender-swapped Romeo and Juliet. This year is no different.

   Today, my Lady Capulet-a fifteen year old, 6 ft. 2 boy to set the picture, was reading the line in act 1 scene 1 where Lady Capulet asks Benvolio where Romeo is, but she's glad he wasn't there for the massive fight in the village square.

   As I broke it down for the kids, my current Lady Capulet goes, "Right. My mom senses were tingling."

   They're like spidey-senses, but for moms. And apparently they develop from reading half a scene of Shakespeare.

 

Teaching...

   If I'm going to be completely honest with you, teaching is freaking hard. I know for the most part this blog has focused on feel good moments and funny anecdotes. But. I've been rolling this around in my head for the past three or four days. It's so hard, guys. 

   There are these picture things going around on Facebook and Instagram about all the jobs that a teacher does during the day: educator, counselor, nurse, mediator, etc. And it's true. There are so many things going on at any given point that I frequently feel like I'm being pulled in twelve different directions. 

   It can be overwhelming, and it's for sure exhausting. Last week was homecoming, and I felt like I was nonstop all week, and I felt like my kids needed me even more than usual because there was so much going on in their world. 

   Now, I know I don't have to be that person for these kids. I know I could come in, open my door just before class, teach my classes, leave at 3:45, do my grading, and call it a day. But that's really not in my nature; for the most part, once I'm in, I'm all in. And these are my kids. I care about them. I'm invested in them. 

  And, sometimes it pays off. Sometimes it's a former student giving you a big hug at the homecoming game and talking about life with you. Sometimes it's a parent thanking you during conferences. Sometimes, it's just knowing that you're trying. 

   I don't like getting political. I don't like the news, I don't watch it if I can avoid it. But lately, it seems like there's so much teacher bashing going on, on social media, the news, sometimes in person, and I just wish that opponents of teachers--and they are opponents, really--could see what we try and do during the day. I'm not saying we're perfect, we're only human after all; and I'm not pretending that every teacher feels the way I do. I'm speaking for myself, and myself only. 

   Teaching is hard. But, I honestly, truly, 100%, couldn't imagine doing anything else with my life. 

Cows

   For the past three years, I've used cows as an example while working on outlines. They always laugh. I make up facts, they're way exaggerated, the kids laugh. It's a good time. (For me at least.) And this year for informative speeches one of my sophomores is actually doing a speech on cows! I'm so proud!

T.Jefferson and T.Swift

We're reading the Declaration of Independence in English III. To make it relatable to high school juniors I said it was basically a breakup letter. Jefferson says, hey we need to break up and here's why.

One of my generally soft spoken boys said, "So...Thomas Jefferson is the Taylor Swift of his time."

Exactly.

We're Baaaack

Four weeks in, and I have so many stories I could tell already. First, I'll just say that I did miss my kiddos over the summer, but I enjoyed some time with my actual kiddo, age one. In addition to starting school back up, I decided to take on grad school--sometimes I wonder if I'm certifiable. Ha. 

So...a few brief moments: one of my juniors sneezed into his shirt and lost his gum...then just sat there and looked at it for a minute while I was dying of laughter. We talked about cows and shoes in speech class (making outlines and bibliographies). I tipped my chair over last week...and one of my kids had to leave the room in case I was hurt because he was laughing, one checked that I was okay before he started laughing. 

And like I said, we're only on day one of week five. 

I have a new freshmen class, and we're starting to figure each other out. Today we were reading King's "I Have a Dream" speech. We talked about where racism was prevalent, and I referenced historical trials, and facts. I mentioned that in the times of segregation, if black families couldn't move into white neighbor hoods, or if they did people would move or the value of the houses decreased.

One of the boys looked at me and said, "Hey! That's in a song."

"Is it? I'll take your word for it."

"It is! It's from Colt 45!"

I don't know if you know Colt 45, but it is a HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE song. However, I know the words because I was a teenager once. So I go through some of the lyrics in my head, and realized he was right. Which I admitted out loud. And then laughed. "You're absolutely right 'When Afroman walked through the white land, houses went up for sale.' But no more Colt 45, it's really not school appropriate." Sometimes the connections that they make are so relevant, but catch me off guard. 

Teenagers. Let me tell you.

Proud Mama Moments

I frequently joke that I have many kids: one ten-month old, and 80 teenagers. And while--clearly--it is a joke, there's some truth to the statement. When you have a student for a year, you become attached to even the most difficult in some way, shape, or form. You're proud of their accomplishments, you know more about them than you'd like to, you feel bad for them when they have bad days. My seniors were sophomores when I started, I've had them for the last three years, so all the feelings of having a student for one year multiply by three or four when you're a high school teacher.

My seniors are currently wrapping up senior projects. For senior projects students have to write a research paper, do a project, and present it to the judges. We're in the midst of presentations. Last night, I was a little worried about one of my kids presenting. When he was a sophomore, speech class was...a challenge. He'd get to giggling and not be able to stop, he'd become frustrated and say things he didn't really mean to say aloud. 

But last night. Oh my goodness, I had SUCH a proud mama moment, my heart was just full. He has come leaps and bounds since sophomore speech class! He appeared confident and poised; his vocabulary was great, he was conversational and answered questions from the judges easily. 

Even though senior projects make me pull my hair out. Even though I swear this class is making me go grey at 26. Even though every year I swear I'm done with senior projects FOREVER. This makes it worth it. Seeing the growth of one student. Being able to tell him how absolutely proud I am of him.

Every missing hair, every grey hair, every frustrated moment, every lecture about responsibility, this moment made it all worth it.