Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Immaturity

One of my classes is beginning to frustrate me. I call them my "class from hell" even though half of the class is not as hellish as I make them out to be; after all, the other half of the class are quiet behaved girls. I'm not saying that girls are better than boys, but the breed of boys in this particular class just make me want to smack them upside the head. I begin to wish that corporal punishment was reinstated in California.

English. It's not the most interesting thing in a high school kid's life. It's the most hated subject in schools because it is the most mentally demanding as far as analytical thinking is concerned. And let's face it: kids these days have no endurance for difficult tasks. They give up as soon as they think it's hopeless. This, indeed, is a society of laziness, of baby-boomer spawns who genuinely think they are entitled to anything and everything just because their parents got everything and anything.

Most of all, I hate the stupid responses that kids give me that I can't seem to argue around or against. For example, some kid said to me, "I didn't do my homework... it's because I'm black."
What do you say to that?

The thing that bothers me most is when students complain that English is boring. I don't take it as a personal insult that my subject is boring or that I teach in boring ways, but what bothers me is their apathy. They'll sit there in their seat and just not do the work. It's like banging your head on a wall to get them to do anything. If they're going to sit in my class and refuse to do the work and not care, why can't I just give them an F for the year and not care, too?

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. On that note, why does California require minors to be in school? If high schoolers don't want to come to school, they shouldn't be there. If these kids are so eager to start working to earn their own money, let them. Let them see how hard it is to make ends meet on a minimum wage with limited work hours because they're still under sixteen and can barely drive. They'll all come crawling back anyway...

Monday, September 27, 2004

Sophomore

In Greek sophomore means "wise moron" or "wise idiot." Really, it does.

sophos, wise, and moros, stupid.

That's what I teach--fifteen year old teenagers who think they're on the brink of wisdom, but in reality, are just a bunch of dumb-asses.

Not all of them, but about 80% of them actually fit that description.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Terrorists Are Just Plain STUPID

Iraq is war-torn and deprived of resources. American people, as well as people from other countries, are trying to help Iraq by delivering goods, feeding people, and rebuilding destroyed facilities from power plants to restoring water supplies.

And stupid militant Islamist terrorists are beheading people who are trying to help Iraq. That's like biting the hand that feeds you, like refusing money that will help you buy food.

Terrorists=stupid people.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Trying to Make a Statement

On Friday, as I walked through the staff parking lot to get into the school building, a student holds a stuff cow with a sign stuck on it that said, "Meat is Murder." The student, along with two friends, shyly approaches me and said, "Meat is murder. Save the cow."

First of all, young animal-rights activist, if you're going to even become an activist, you better start learning how to use a proper aggressive voice because your meek tones didn't grab my attention. Second, if you believe in a cause, better research it. As the teacher behind me pointed out, "Right... save the cow. She was wearing leather shoes."

The strange things kids do these days to grab attention...


Thursday, September 16, 2004

Laziness As An Occupation

There's laziness because one doesn't really want to do the work, and then there's laziness that one believes is the way of life. The latter is the mentality of most of my students. It's a different kind of laziness that is different from the former. The first can be easily remedied by calling parents or offering rewards. The second cannot be remedied at all because the student has been spoiled to the point that they believe life should be handed to them on a plate.

One of my students wore a shirt that said, "Perseverence: If it's too hard, then don't do it," and it had a picture of Homer Simpson. For some students, that is a way of life.

The kids up here are a different breed. They are extremely spoiled.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Anime Was Going to Be My Strange Hook


I thought these creatures were obscure enough not to attract attention, but it seems that too many people, especially teachers, know what they are. How disappointing.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Geek Talk

A fellow teacher asked to borrow some CDs from me. The CDs are soundtracks to one of my favorite anime of all time, but he's never seen it; he just likes the music. I plan to convert him before the school year is over. I will make him watch the series with me, but I can't explain it to him; it's too complicated. Imagine our first conversation about anime:

ME: It's this awesome story about a girl who gets transported to another world and her psychic ability is revered by the king of a fallen country. The king owns this super-cool mecha that turns into a dragon--

HIM: Mecha? What's that?

ME: Um... it's like a... machine, robotic-like... It's like a Transformer, but not as boxy or square-looking, but more... aerodynamically streamlined for...transformation and dogfights in the air...

HIM: @_@

If I completely turned fangirl before him before he's ready, I could lose him. But luckily, he likes comics and we were talking about Neil Gaiman, X-Men, Superman, Spiderman, JLA, and Star Trek and Star Wars and X-Files, and other random things that geeks talk about--conventions, book collecting, classical music, CDs, etc. I just have to introduce him to the world of anime, then our nerdy wavelengths will be in-synchronization.

Sunday, September 12, 2004

First Full Week

This week will by my first full week of teaching. The first couple of days were just adjustment and introduction. This will will include instruction and real discipline for both students and myself.

Already, I'm dreading it. It's tiring teaching five classes a day. I kind of miss it when I used to teach three classes a day. Two hour blocks are not as exhausting as 55-minute classes.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

First Day

Exciting, happy, funny, weird...

The day was totally great.

Now I'm just totally exhausted.


Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Make or Break

Today I spent five eight hours (five hours after work ended) setting up my classroom. School starts tomorrow. My room still seems bare, even after I hung several posters. I'm not going to sweat too much about tomorrow only because classes are about an hour long.

I'm so ready. But we'll see how tomorrow goes. We'll see if it's a repeat of my first day at that other school.


Friday, September 03, 2004

Back to School

This week has been full of orientation meetings and seminars. I have been overwhelmed with information, and words cannot describe how excited I am to be starting school. Today's orientation included a campus tour and meetings with the principal. Already, I think I am falling in love with the principal. And when I mean "in love," I mean that I love her philosophy when it comes to learning. This whole day, I was awestruck at her ideas and beliefs. She truly emanates a "tough love" aura-- a woman who totally believes in the heart of things, but also realistic when it comes to education and students, not just test scores.

And this school has a school-wide writing program. Talk about love! This is like finding love and finding out that the person of your dreams is also rich. I swear, if I am still at this school for the next ten years, I (me, august23) will implement a school-wide reading program and start a specialized writing class.

The more I learn about the school and its mission, part of me truly believes that this school is where I belong. It's like that feeling when you know that special someone is the one for the rest of your life. That's how I feel about this school.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

If Only...

There has to be a DVD set of "The Young Riders." There's just gotta be!

The New Place

I'm up at my new place, away from irksome family, but sweltering in the devil's armpit. It's so damn hot up here. My apartment is right next to the pool, but I have no bathing suit, nor do I want to get any darker than I already am. My room is half organized, and if only school would start sooner, I could pack up my books and start taking them away to my new classroom.

That's right, I got a classroom. The teachers plan to change my schedule, so I can have my own classroom. I'll be teaching freshmen and juniors. Originally, I was supposed to teach sophomores and seniors. Can you believe that? They got me--a new teacher-- to start teaching juniors and seniors. Never would that happen in San Diego.