Thursday, June 01, 2006

Is it over yet?

The end of the school year makes me want to drink in a bad way. In fact, there was a gin and tonic consumed tonight after school. There are five days of school left, with 1 of those being an all-school skating party.

There are a few things that make the end of the year crazy. First, this year I have 36 research papers to grade between tomorrow and next Friday. Thankfully I've read them all at least once and am grading on a rubric, but it's daunting. Also, the kids are c-r-a-z-y, and not in the good way. Sometimes they're crazy and funny and I have good stories to post here. Lately they're just crazy annoying. Like today two eighth-graders thought it was HILARIOUS to get up every other minute to sharpen tiny pencils, break the ends, and repeat the routine. Some weird stuff.

Oh, and know how when you go to the movies you don't like to sit near the pre-teens because they are constantly talking through it? Yeah, same thing at school. It's somewhat amusing, but 13 year-olds simply cannot watch a movie without making comments on it. So, after every dog fight in Call of the Wild, there are a million comments about what they would've done in that situation, if they were dogs.

I don't know if it's like this for other teachers, but I am SO ready for this year to be over.

One semi-funny kid story to leave you with--D, this tall, lanky red-headed 8th grader (some of the kids call him a ginger kid, like that one episode of South Park) was galloping across the playground like a horse, singing "I can't wait to sign in to day care" in at least 3 different keys, and once in falsetto. This is the same kid who sang the organic chemistry song on our field trip to the library. Yea for singing.

5 comments:

Ruth said...

Oh, it is SO like this for other teachers. At least for me.

One more week for us as well. Same goofy behavior. Same grading issues. I just keep reminding myself, I love teaching and I love these kids! Honest! :-)

Matt Haugland said...

I remember going to those skating parties. My last one was 13 years ago. Thanks for helping me feel old :-/

Gotta love jr. high kids! I wish I could take over your job for the last week or two. I probably couldn't handle it for a whole year though.

Bridget said...

You're welcome, Matt! I always feel old when I bring up things that I think the kids know about, but don't. We've been doing a unit on film lately, and every movie I mention I get blank looks. Last year I asked the kids what they knew about Alanis Morisette as an intro. to what is irony and what is not, and one kid said "I know she's a singer that's way old." Ouch.

Well, if you are around you're more than welcome to take over my classes! How do you think your brother would react?

Bridget said...

Thanks for the support, Ruth! I'm glad I'm not going crazy. I loved your comment about how much your graduation speech would change in the last three weeks of school. I feel the same way!

Ruth said...

I said something about Paul McCartney last week and none of the kids knew who he was! OK, he IS old, but still...