Things that happened this week:
1) One student back from ISS, one still serving time in ISS, and Friday afternoon a note in our mailbox letting us know one more student will be serving time in ISS starting Monday. These are all 7th graders. Hormones, ugh!
2) Thursday afternoon in 8th hour (8th graders) I looked at one of the boys in the class and found myself thinking "I would really love to slap you in the face." Mind you, I would never actually slap a student. (You're right, I would never get my teaching license) However, it was my first reaction to his full of himself, better than you, don't give a rip about anyone attitude.
NEWSFLASH: You are not "hot shit." You are a 13 year old, hormonal, pimple-y, pretentious pre-teen.
3) A student brought a praying mantis to class. Some teachers get flowers or maybe an apple. I get a BUG. Now, you might have thought to yourself, "I'm confused, I thought you taught social studies." If that ran through your mind let me assure you that you are correct! The day before when we had been talking about the 5 themes of Geography, this student had informed me about a set of caterpillars she had at home that had turned into cocoons. Now, she said something about bringing them and I kind of said I didn't think it was a good idea, blah blah. Mostly because I had NO idea how she was relating this to the theme of Human-Environment Interaction. Yes, I realize that caterpillars are part of the environment. But that's not exactly the direction I was going with the whole interaction part.
Anyways, I let it go, thinking that she could in no way be serious. Oh how wrong I was. Friday morning before school started the door to the room opened. There stood the science teacher on our team with the innocent little 7th grader.
He had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.
"Ms. Peterson, I brought you a praying mantis." ::insert Ms. Peterson staring dumbly back at said student, glancing at the science teacher, and back to said student with a confused grin on my face::
"Um...ok..."
"For the 5 Themes of Geography, remember?" ::Realization sets in. My CT is standing there utterly dumbfounded...she had missed out on the caterpillar conversation the day before::
"Oh, right. I thought you were bringing caterpillars?"
"Yeah, but I found this praying mantis. It's a female. But be careful if she gets mad she might spray poison at you." ::What. The. Heck??::
"Ok. Well, we'll just leave it in here until 4th hour." ::Door closes::
I just got brought a praying mantis. My CT is even more confused than I am, until I tell her the story of the day before. I am laughing beyond measure at this point, trying to figure out what the heck we are going to do with this bug. It is staring ominously at us both. We want to let it go, but decide we need to wait until after 4th hour.
"How in the world does she know its a female?" is all my CT can manage to ask. Why in the world did she bring it to school in a plastic lunch container? is all I can think.
We proceed to head downstairs for supervision duty and see the science teacher in the hall and ask him about it. He still has the most hilarious grin on his face, as we all do.
"She said her dad found it at work."
"Where does her dad work?"
"He works at Creighton. He's a lunch lady."
I've entirely lost it at this point. I am just at a loss for words and am laughing so hard that I can't contain it. I'm imagining this girl (quite the character, as you can see) telling Mr. E that her dad is a lunch lady. Not a cafeteria worker, no, a lunch lady.
TGIF.
Said student comes running down the hall before third hour to get the bug. She wants to take it to science class. It fits better there, anyways. So long, little praying mantis. It was fun while it lasted.
Being a teacher helps you appreciate the phrase "Thank God it's Friday," I can say that for certain. Not that the weekend brings much relief. Yes, I am not surrounded by 7th and 8th graders. But I will be spending the weekend (which only consists of the rest of today and tomorrow) lesson planning (hopefully getting the whole next week done) and finishing the first part of my TWS that should be done by this week.
My supervisor in coming for my first observation first thing Monday morning, so I need to at least have that lesson plan done. I don't mind being observed, as every field experience I have done I've been observed by my CT. Not to mention I have been observed already by my academic adviser. However, I think everyone gets a bit nervous for observations. Especially because she is coming during the first class of the day and they are my guinea pigs.
At least they are well behaved. (Knock on wood)
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