From the Other Side of the Desk

Here is some of what I hear everyday:

So far in my 20 weeks of teaching I have encountered many surprises and situations which college classes didn't necessarily prepare me to handle. For example, bodily functions in the classroom. I expected I would have the occasional bodily function disruptions, but I did not expect it to interrupt my class multiple times in a week! This week and even into last week I have been dealing with serious disruptions caused by flatulence (a.k.a passing gas or fluffing or farting).

Now, I know you are probably laughing, but I'm telling you its BAD! 4th period I have this one boy who flatulates multiple times throughout class and it is thick! It is so terrible that half the students are coughing, some are opening the door, the other the windows, and one is even spraying my air deodorizer. All the students know it is this boy and so they are making comments to him like, "Come'on man!" or "I'm gonna put the air freshener up your butt so when you fart it sprays nice smelling stuff," or "Go out into the hallway!" His response, "I had some really good beans last night." Apparently, he isn't that embarrassed.

Obviously, somehow I have to address the situation. I can't really say, "Hey _______ stop farting." I can't really send him to the office. Instead I just told the student he could go into the hall whenever he needed . . . like that wasn't awkward! What else was I supposed to do though? Today, it was even worse, if you can imagine. I had 2 students flatulating! How am I supposed to teach my kids when every five minutes they are gagging from the most foul smelling farts ever!?! It's all I can do to not puke in my trash can or have a sour face, seriously. I never really thought I would have to deal with this situation, it is just so awkward. If you have any suggestions feel free to make a comment and share. All I have to say is freshman boys stink.

From The Other Side Of The Desk -- Gagging

Last week was a hard week of teaching for me. I worked very long hours and had some horrible parent teacher conferences. One of my students was staying after school on Friday and commented that she had heard I had some difficulties with parents at conferences. Shocked, I asked her how she knew. She said, everybody knew. Curious, I asked her how. She said she heard it from the student whose parents didn't like me. All I could manage to say was, "oh," but really I was thinking "great, so now students are bragging about their parents ripping on me."

Lost in reflection over this, I barely heard what my students said next, but I am so glad I did. She told me that even though people were saying I was a bad teacher she wanted me to know that she thought I was doing a good job for my first year. She said that I was the first math teacher she had ever understood. In her previous math class the teacher never really taught them and she was entirely lost. She thanked me for explaining the math step by step because she got it that way. She said her mom also agreed I was a good teacher based on her new understanding of math.

She just wanted me "to know." She was thoughtful, sincere. She'll never know what that meant to me.


From the other side of the desk--thankful I'm not the "worst" teacher in everyone's eyes

They told me the first year was "the worst," that there would be hard days. I knew that, what I didn't know is that there would be more hard days than good days. They told me that I would work long hours and stay after school a lot. What I didn't know is that I would be living, eating, and breathing my very job.  They told me that I might have difficult parents to work with. What I didn't know is how horrible I would feel when they accused me of their child's failure in my class. I had no idea they would pick apart my grading scales, classroom procedures, and assignments. They told me I should differentiate my instruction to meet the needs of my students. What they didn't tell me is that I would have brilliant eighth graders who can teach themselves out of the book and juniors who can't do basic arithmetic in the same class. They told me I would make mistakes and that was okay. What I didn't know is that those mistakes would happen every single day, every single class  period. They told me I was supposed to teach to the state standards. What I didn't know is that students would come into my class without the prerequisite skills they needed making it impossible to teach all the standards for the course. They told me not every student would pass, that some students would be unmotivated. What I didn't know is that I would receive blank tests, that I would have a hard time separating my feelings of success from student performance. They told me a lot, but I didn't know even more.

From the other side of the desk--a little down