Biotch du Jour

There are some days when you can please them all and then there are days like today when you become public enemy number one. Today was such a day and for a scant 15 students, I became their boitch from hell. Feels interesting. I mean, I'm not suffering any mental anguish and yet I felt I had to apologize to them.

See, today was grad rehearsal and those who are not graduating (due to failing marks or missing credits) had to sit through it. My intentions were good: it was going to last only 10 to 15 minutes and the rest was prom talk. But all good intentions often get quashed by stupidity (not by me, but others' stupidity), so the rehearsal lasted much much longer and many of them felt humiliated and pissed off.

Some accepted my apology, others were still very upset. And then there are some who totally blew my mind and acknowledge the fact that it is their own fault they are not graduating. Just because of that, they should be getting a diploma. Although it's a bit late, they did learn something after all: responsibility...

Grad Car Wash

I'm pooped but I had a blast! Yeah, I was playing the role of the grumpy teacher, often telling my students to stop dousing each other with soapy water (oh boy, thankfully, none of the girls were wearing white tshirts - worse: they had bikini tops *sigh*), but I think we had a lot of fun and made over 400$ for our Graduation activities. Here are some pics...Chris, aka I-am-wearing-the-loudest-pants-in -the-bunch, didn't sign up to help for the car wash but ended up joining in on the fun early in the day and stayed the entire day. I had to fire him due to his shoddy squeegeeing, which is a shame because he was quite find of his title of squeegee boy.As you can see, the sun finally came out from behind the clouds (around 11am). I was pretty nervous because when I got up this morning, at the too-too early hour of 7am, it looked like it was going to rain. I'm glad I brought my sunblock because some of the kids had shoulders a pretty shade of beet red by the end of the day.

I'm happy I have a group picture that I can post without getting reprimanded too much... you see, most of the girls who were wearing bikini tops are not in the picture. So instead you get The Dave topless, in his pale splendor. Even Hollywood Mike (3rd guy from the left) dubbed The Dave "the whitest white guy he knew". And please give the boy a sandwich or a burger, get some meat on his bones!

I hope that the students enjoyed the day as much as I did. I especially enjoyed the guys mocking Jessica Simpson, doing their funniest sexy car wash dancing. I almost peed myself! Stick to your day jobs guys, go-go dancers you are not!

I big thanks to Mr Ali Abassi, the owner of the Petro-Canada we used for this event and to the parents and teachers who came to support the grads. Two radio stations must be thanked as well, CHOM and Mix 96 who announced our event on the air.

Lots of fun to be had at the Car Wash!

The grads are having their Car Wash tomorrow in Verdun, so sacrfice those chickens folks 'cause I need 2 things: good weather and tons of cars!

Miss A MIA...

Yeah yeah, Môôôssieu Carlôôô will probably say that I don't update my page, but althought things have considerably slowed down at school in regards to Leadership, I have been busy with, *gasp* teaching!

Novel concept no? A teacher actually teaching! Wow! Blows my mind just thinking about it...

I figured I could share a really cool picture of the Beurling Bunch to compensate for the lack of recents posts.

And for those keeping tabs on the progress of Version 2.0, on that picture, I believe I am 7 months preggers (minus a few days). I think my belly has expanded since then.

The end is nigh!

Hoo boy! Only 12 days left of teaching (with my grade 11 students - 17 with the grade 10s) and many teachers have already disconnected from their pedagogical aspirations.

I've been disconnected for quite some time now... I think since November or something, hehe.

A year in the Leadership class

We had our review of the year in our Leadership class yesterday. The group was asked to write (anonymously) what they learned and what they were proud of. This is what they wrote:

About our Youth CO-OP

Something I learned…

I’ve learned how to organize our time to accomplish our goal. I’ve also learned how to use the 4 committees and know where to go to get things done.

I learned how to function in the 4 groups settings.

I have learned to done things to work out in any environment and that can help out.

Guidance isn’t always the lead to success.

To always depend on just your self isn’t always the best way!

That we all learned to be responsible, be equal.

Board meeting

To be more organized

I learned to cooperate with other. I learned to have fun in group, along with getting work done!

Learned about the different areas (marketing, etc…) needed to organize an activity.

I learned that there’s many parts to a business.

How to work really well with others. How to do things in a group.

Patience and tolerance.

Not to let my anger problems kick in on people who irritate me.

I learned how to speak out with in groups and started to put more effort.

I learned to work better in a group and how to organize activities.

I’ve learned to become more cooperative with my peers and to better understand the work and responsibility that I’ve taken on.

Something I’m proud of…

That we actually ended up working well.

I am proud that I actually worked hard without being what to do.

I’m proud to say that I learned a new manor of doing things and I’m proud to say how well we worked together as a class.

I am proud of our success as co-op and of our team work which made things easier.

I am proud we won an award as a class for our cooperation

Myself!

Winning the competition!

Our work

The success of the activities we organized.

I have gotten rid of, pretty much, all of my shyness and now feel more confident.

All the work and time and effort I put in this class.

That I am able to work well with others.

I am proud of my self and my perseverance that I had through out the course.

I’m proud of how much patience I gained.

I’m proud to have been a part of this class and experience not only with myself but with my peers and teacher. I’m proud that I’ve been able to grow and learning things that I would have never been able to if not for this class.

Doesn't seem like much but it definitely puts a smile on my face when I read these comments. As for myself, I am proud of these students!

Good vibes

Good vibes come with a good breakfast, and these vibes are even better when it's a catered breakfast!

To reward deserving homerooms for outdid themselves for the Peaceful Schools International activity, we had breakfast brought in for them. Close to 200 students got breakfast this morning, started the day off with a full stomach, which is cool considering some kids don't even eat breakfast before they get to school.

I also got a lot of good vibes from some teachers who complimented my group and myself on the wonderful work we have done. Unexpected positivity is always a bonus.

Good some good work done today. Only a phonecall away (re: upcoming car wash) from having a really great day. I am biting my tongue to avoiding any jinxing... old greek saying.

Playing catch up

Monday is Catch up Day (insert your favorite condiment joke here) and it was a productive day indeed. I wish I could have gotten more done but I subbed for one class (and seeing as I have said no to Super Christine several times this year, I couldn't refuse again)

May is a prime time of the year for skipping. So many students (and teachers) are so tired and have mentally disconnected from school that all they can handle right now are exams (which only start in a month for seniors). Teachers are taking whatever sick days they have left and putting them to good use (I hear a terrasse calling me!), while as students are just not showing up at all to their afternoon classes (most of the time).

Having been teaching for the past 7-8 years, I am not surprised at this. I think it's normal. Your brain can only handle so much stress and work. It will somehow witch to "off" at one point... Now before you start pointing out the fact that these kids should only worry about school and that amount of stress is nothing compared to the kind and quantity of stress adults go through, I will say this: I know. Yeah, most of these kids cop out of school because they don't feel like it. However, some kids these days have much tougher lives than when we were their age. So if they disconnect from school, I can understand. It's the ones who do fudge-all the entire year and then decide to skip the majority of their classes. Then, they whine that they are failing. May they go boil themselves an egg because I have no sympathy for those idiots.

Student Leadership BBQ

Mother Nature threw us a curve ball but we managed to still have a wonderful BBQ to celebrate our accomplishments. Mistair Noohton provided us with too-too awesome bbq-ed chicken and burgers that my students ate voraciously (Caitlyn had 5 pieces of bbq chicken and Dave made himself a supreme triple layered burger). We also had salads and desserts (home-made ice cream sandwiched adeptly prepared by Liz) and we ate and ate until we either wanted to burst or fall asleep, which ever came first.

I'm going to miss these guys next year. Really.

Everyone was amazing!

I just got home from the Talent Show. The auditorium is a mess, but my Leadership kids will clean up tomorrow morning. And for the record I am totally exhausted, I am pretty sure this is not good for my little one and I sure I will be paying for it later... I hope my child won't be warped when it's born, but I guess I am being paranoid.

My Leadership students, once again, are amazing... I didn't have to worry once about either crowd control or stage management. They were fantastic.

The audience, as usual, are loud, chatty and quasi-rowdy. However, they never once booed or yelled out nastiness to any of the acts. I guess it's a Beurling Academy thing: come for the show and the gossip.

And I would like to add that, apparently, I sounded really great when I sand Heart-Shaped Box from Nirvana. I got kudos from kids from another school, so their wasn't any sucking-up factor in that compliment. My band was terrific: Justin T is awesome on bass, Catalan rocks on the drums and Quentin is stellar on led guitar. I say we go touring and make some cash. Come on, it'd be a great gimmick: the pregnant chick sings grunge and metal songs!

Hopefully this post makes up for the lack of posting this week. It has been a wee bit crazy and I had no time to post anything remotely coherent.

You want to know why?

Yesterday I heard on the news that teachers are quitting the profession after only three years on the job. (see last article on website) Shocking? Thinking that new teachers are wussies and can't handle the demands of your average classroom? Sure, that's an easy way to justify the decline in numbers. Let me tell why teachers are quitting so early in their careers.

1) Universities are not telling the truth about the classroom: Universities (at least the ones in this province) are still sugar-coating the actual facts about what happens in the classroom. Classroom management classes are presenting worse case scenarios that have at the most 2 or 3 problem kids, and those problem kids have only 1 difficulty (ex: Little Johnny has ADHD). The reality is that in a group of 25 to 30 students (in an average school with inclusive classrooms, meaning there is no segregation between regular stream kids and children with difficulties), 1 third to 1 half of students have 1 or more known behavioral or learning difficulties. Sure, teachers end up getting paid more for these students (students with these particularities are "worth" more, meaning they are as demanding as 2 students), but the universities do not prepare future teachers to this reality. They don't even take the time to explain that some of these kids work at different levels. They just give you the basic, the simplest situation and teach you to deal with that. Show me anyone, even those super-moms, who can deal with 10 to 15 students who are either misbehaving or cannot learn or even both.

2) Students are out of control: Speaking of students, tell me if you would want to stay in a profession where your clients (in this case, the students) will do the following: throw paper, coins, marbles, food and firecrackers at you, throw your office furniture out of the window, vandalise your personal property, steal your personal effects, graffiti your office with swastikas and various parts of the male anatomy, physically attack you, insult you with oh-so-colorful language and ignore you when you are working with them. Name me one lawyer, doctor, bus driver, secretary, salesperson who would be willing to keep his or her job when these things happen to them. Of course they won't. They will be the first to complain to their suprevisors/employers/regional director/media to get satisfaction. But when a teacher demands a higher salary or better resources to deal with what happens in a classroom, we collectively freak out. And forget reporting it to the administration and getting a speedy outcome. To successfully expell a truly problem child, a file about the size of the Gomery Report needs to be established and only then can you expect some consequences (at least in the public sector). Suspensions these days are seen like vacation time for students and detentions have about as much effect as a slap on the wrist.

3) Lack of accountability: Who is ultimately responsible for all of this? Students are out of control? The social finger of fate points to society, who then points to parents who finally point to teachers. Why? Because we see them everyday? Since when have we become children's primary caregiver? I am not denying that we play a vital role in the younger generation's education. A crucial role even. We are an integral part of these childrens' loves, but come on! I have seen barnyard animals with better social skills than some of these teens. They come to us totally fudged up. Should we then blame the school administrators? Another easy scapegoat to use when things go wrong and results are not satisfactory. However, principals and vice-principals have their hands tied by some beauraucratic red-tape that prevents them from really applying the punishement kids deserve. You think they enjoy saying: "I'm sorry there's nothing we can do for now"? Don't forget, many principals and v-ps are former teachers who have gone through the exact same thing current teachers are experiencing and trust me, I have seen numerous occasions where the principal wanted to kick some kid out of school, but couldn't because of laws or schoolboard rules. So let's blame the school board! Okay, but they have the ministry, le MELS, to deal with, and if you are an english schoolboard, you have more pressure on you than you can imagine. Okay, then let's blame the MELS...but uhm, the government is us, society as a whole, when you think about it. So why aren't we as a society doing more to resolve this problem?

I'm tired of hearing the public complain/moan/groan when educators are vocing their concern. I'm tired of hearing people gasp when they are told that thousands of teachers are quitting because of psychological distress. I would like to see more action done about this instead of the constant filibusting that amounts to nothing.