180 days as a teacher

I've never been one to sleep in late, but this is just a little bit too insane, even for ME. It was 11:30PM before I headed up to bed at which point I was completely wired.

Pissed off may better described my mental state - because many many of the girls were too lazy to open up their notes and simply copy the explanations to some of the questions in their technology lab report.

As a result, many have failed the said report, and have thus lost their last life line to actually pass. Some who were swimming just above the 60% overall mark are now failing because they had better things to do than to put a little effort in their work.

I spoke to other teachers yesterday about some kids who just can't be persuaded into cracking the books. It's as though they think some ugly, slimy creature will crawl out of the book and attack them if they dare take it out of their desk. Each teacher is on his/her own to persuade the kids to do the work. And in the end, if they don't, they fail. And there's nothing you can do about it.

Am I losing my mind? At this point, with a little less than 3 hours of sleep in me, with my stomach growling, because it's insane to be up at this time thinking of a bunch of unrelated 14-yr olds who are snoring away. Add PMS and this is going to be one hell of a day.

There is a big biology test next week, and I'm assigning a 12-page homework to those who failed the last big test (because I can't trust they will study on their own). I'm not even going to correct this because they can do it with their books and notes, and also because I need more correction like I need this cloud of PMS which has taken over since the beginning of the week.

Looks like I'm going to have to do the same with technology and assign extra work, perhaps ask them to have their parents sign the completed work before they hand it in... I better stop now and get a piece of toast before I become the Evil Teacher of the West.

I'm even considering not bringing in the Halloween treats I had gotten them. But I can't because then I'll be stuck with even more goodies than the truckload my three kids will be gathering on Monday...