One: I am a bad person.
This is an awful story that maybe I shouldn't share so publicly but I'm gunna anyway. Ready for this? It's pretty bad...
I hit a student.
Told ya it was bad!
Let me set the stage:
It is homecoming week at school. So the kids are all riled up. Especially right after lunch.
Thursday I was having my final student teacher observation (when my professor comes to watch me teach). I didn't have my professor that I usually do, I had the one who makes me even more nervous.
I haven't really taught much in the landscaping class (which was the one being observed) other than when my cooperating teacher was out last week. So I'm real nervous.
My professor said he was coming between 12-12:10 for the class that started at 12:25 so I waited inside while the rest of the school was outside for the powder puff football game during the lunch hour.
As students come in each day we have them mark their name off on the Promethean board (what is a Promethean board?) for attendance.
The story:
I got the attendance set up and ready. At around 12:15 I heard students coming down the hall and some commotion out there. Then a student walks in tracking water and I'm like what is going on? Evidently the pool that was set up in the shop broke and flooded into the hall.
(Oh Great!)
Then a student is standing at the Promethean board marking off all the names. My cooperating teacher happen to be standing right there and yelled at him then reset the names. Students continued checking their names.
One student had the pen and was trying to mark off his name but another kid was playing with the mouse making the screen scroll up and down. So to me it looked like the kid with the pen was just hitting off any names (which he unintentionally kinda was). I exclaimed "cut it out!" as I without thinking, for whatever stupid reason hit him on the back of his shoulder.
(Oh shit! What did I just do!?)
The kid was "like what the? you just hit me?"
I started apologizing like no other and getting concerned about my professor walking in at any moment. The kid went and sat down and was talking about suing me (only joking I think/hope) but I told him I would buy him a candy bar and with high schoolers bribery is everything, so he said okay and quieted down about it.
Then my professor finally showed up.
So I got on with starting class. I was pretty worked up about the whole attendance taking thing so I had to start off with scolding the class. I went over the expectations for the day and we headed out to the work site where the students are working on a landscaping job.
When we were out at the site the kid came over to me when my professor wasn't around and I was apologizing again and he was like oh "I feel bad cause we were talking about it when your teacher was in there I don't wanna get you in trouble." And I was like "no don't worry about it, it's my problem I shouldn't have done that."
I'm SO lucky that he was just joking around about it and didn't want to get me in trouble. There are so many people that would throw a fit, exaggerate how hard they were hit, and really would try to sue.
I guess it was just nervous energy. Sasha says it was like motherly instinct, when the kids doing something wrong ya swat them outta there. Maybe I just have a real bad temper that I should control before trying to be a teacher.
Also luckily my professor didn't know about it.
To sum up Hitting students is a bad, embarrassing, and stupid thing to do.
Good thing I only have 13 school days left.
Two: The innocence of a 7 year old
Today I was helping the FFA kids set up for the football concessions.
My cooperating teacher had run to the store to pick up supplies. Instead of getting sour cream for the taco in a bag he accidentally got cool whip.
When the kids asked him about it he laughed and tossed it into the back seat of his car. A little while later he and his wife said they were leaving to go eat. The kids of course being high schoolers start laughing about them going to eat their whip cream in the car.
After a while when my cooperating teacher came back his 7 year old daughter was in the concession stand with the FFA kids and someone asked about where he was and someone said something about "oh, they went to eat, their cool whip ya know" and the 7 year old daughter says "no, they just came"
Naturally laughter erupted from the kids. I just sat their thinking oh my goodness, this poor 7 year old has no idea what is so funny and she is the one who threw out the punch line!
So an hour and a half later I am fed and have my stories shared with the world. Hope you enjoyed the stories.
Joy
