Anger/Aggression

First, sorry its been so long. I don't have anything to say other than life gets busy. Thank you all for being patient.

I've noticed a trend among my teacher colleagues that startles me. It starts in the morning during the first period and slowly but surely grows like that sweet foam experiment that biology teachers always do on the first day of class. I'm talking about a teacher's anger and aggression.

I know what some of you teachers are thinking. *Gasp!* I never get angry at my kids. I always have ways of venting frustrations and not taking it out on them. If this is true, than you are the most amazing person this side of Alpha Centauri (obscure space reference). I personally find that my aggression towards those whom I teach increases exponentially. Something minor may happen, but that immediately puts me on the defensive towards ALL students. And so, by the time my last class rolls around, I kind of want to dispose quietly of their fetid corpses. Ok, maybe that's extreme.

I see this in my colleagues too. Towards the end of the day, we are all frazzled and destroyed. We want to annihilate anything that gets in our way. Is this normal, or is it possibly just the situation in which I find myself?

Comments are appreciated

Studying? What's that?

I wonder sometimes if my recent baptism into the cult of education has jaded me. I love to learn, to read and to figure things out. A lot was expected of me in college and I delivered. Not to toot my own horn, but I didn't just breeze through college. I did flipping great!

That having been said, I'm sure I have forgotten how hard it was like to be a teenager. Its terrible what they have to go through! Suzy Smith just broke up with Johny Jones! Oh no! What?! You don't have a date to the Social!? But he/she is so popular... you get the drift.

It seems like kids do have a lot more going on than when I was in high school, but my question is this: Why does it seem like such a foreign concept to put any effort into anything anymore?

Now, before you all comment and say, "Well, you can't expect them to perform at the collegiate level" or, "their only kids", or maybe "Give them a chance to succeed", I do all these things. I give them chances to remember; they do section reviews all the time. I tell them what I've told them, to borrow a line from the old teacher mantra. All I want them to do is to study for a test. The example I give you is the proportion of students who did not achieve a 50% or higher on the test I am currently grading. Its over half. How do I get them to study? I don't want to hold their hands and put effort in that is not being matched. To break from the purpose of this blog, I'd really appreciate any ideas you all might have. This has been happening for a while and it needs to change.

Whoops...

This should, of course, be obvious to most, but I'm just learning this little gem:

DON'T WRITE YOUR TESTS THE DAY OF.

Procrastination is the devil on both shoulders.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check my facebook...

For those of you who know me, that is to say, those who were directed here from my facebook page, I need to have a policy in place which protects anonymity.  Please do not leave comments with my name attached.  Please direct all comments to "Double-O Teacher".  Seriously.  No names.  I will likewise attempt to leave and or change names to protect privacy.  Thanks.

5 months the wiser

I was asked last weekend if, being an educator, I had learned anything from my experience teaching.  Oh boy.  This is going to take a while.  

One of the beauties of starting a blog is the ability to talk to lots of people, often a very cathartic release, without the fear and danger of recognition and repercussions.  

Do I think that anyone will honestly read this for the nuggets of sage gold that I've gleaned in the last several months?  Maybe.  Maybe somewhere out there is a recent college grad who is desperately searching for someone who has been there, this might be for you.  I certainly wish I'd found something that would have shed a small ray of light on an otherwise completely foreign concept.

Or perhaps I'm just doing this for my own reasons.  I want to vent, scream, and quit some days.  The mantle "teacher" is not something that should be taken up lightly.  Don't I know it.  Starting now, I'm keeping a journal of the daily lessons learned while at the workplace.  I hope someone learns something.  Maybe it will be me.