Hampster Ball for you!

So I know as a teacher you can't beat the children.

You can't even mess with their fragile little minds. Sarcasm that's over their heads isn't too bad, but if no one else is around to hear it--it's a hollow victory. Sort of like a tree falling on a mime in the woods...but I digress.

I propose giant hampster balls for trouble maker students. Putting them in a sound-proof plastic bubble would bring a tear to my eye.

I started my frist week of student teaching. It's been interesting. I am working with 9th and 10th graders between two teachers. They seem to think that I will do better with 9th and 10th graders and hoarding the upper level classes for themselves. I know the truth. They just want to escape them.

Don't get me wrong, 9th and 10th graders aren't bad. They have a lot of energy. So does the atomic bomb. (Discuss)

Today I taught my first lesson to the 9th graders. We are preping them for Shakespeare. We start reading Romeo and Juilette Monday. They watched a video and took a little quiz. It was my responsibility to cover the answers, lead a discussion in what they learned from the video, and get them to do another worksheet about the time period.

First hour went pretty well. That's because it is early and they are sluggish. Thus easy to manipulate...er I mean, keep on track. I was even able to astound them with my shocking amount of worthless trivia about the Elizabethian era. Also got 'em a little excited about the fact that 10 Things I Hate About You, is a Shakespeare knock off, as well as "O". It was good!

Then I move on to three back to back sessions of 10th grade. We're practicing for the state writing test they will take on Tuesday. Good times! They are resentful of the fact that they just wrote their third essay in just as many days. I can't blame them.

My briefcase is now full of 90-some-odd four paragraph essays about what kind of music they like and why. Not my crappy question--the good old state of Minnesota came up with that one.

Or how does this grab ya, "What would you change about yourself?" Nothing like a writing assignment that says, "You suck!" Just what all teenager need to think about. As if they don't spend enough time obsessing over how awkward they are as it is.

One kid, he is really fun, asked if he could write about why he wouldn't want to change anything. I told him to go for it. The beautiful part was he had more to say then those that wanted to change something about themselves. Boohya self-esteem!

I dunno what tomorrows prompt will be. Hopefully not, "What makes a good citizen?" It almost feels like these things were written by the orginal writers for Leave it to Beaver.

My 9th period freshmen are a different story. They have a couple of students who make things, shall we say, interesting. Thus my proposal for hampster balls. NO NOT THOSE KIND! YOU PERVERTS!

These two lovely boys seem to be a blackhole of learning. Anyone within a 5 ft radius will be sucked in and not learning either. Moving them does no good as they suck in whoever is near. So if they are going to take up that much space anyway--they might as well be in a giant hampster ball. Plus it would be fun to race them down the hall!

It was harder to keep the 9th period class on track, but I survived!

Go me!

The one shining moment of that class was this one boy who was actually asking thought provoking questions. He and I actually got into a mini-discussion during work time about the signifigance of the church during the time period, and what an impressive ruler Queen Elizabeth must have been. PRAISE JEBUS, THERE ARE KIDS THAT LIKE TO LEARN OUT THERE!!

One kid like that will always out balance the two yahoos in their hampster balls. And thank god for that or else no one would last more than a week at teaching.