Kids these days.....

We have several students who have not been successful on our state test in the past. We offer many different strategies to help them become successful this year. My question though is "How do you make THEM care?" I feel like I have participated in an IronMan competition and they haven't even crossed the starting line. I have stayed after school to provide tutoring--even purchasing snacks for them with my own money--and they don't even attend. I am not in my classroom the last period of the day, but I have another teacher in there. I have told her to NOT let them leave the room. Yet, every day, I return to an empty classroom. I have called parents. I have sent letters. I have even assigned detention to get them there. To no avail.

This is the future of our country!!!!! Pretty scary!!!


I actually had a conversation with one of the kids the other day that went like this....

Teacher: Are you breathing?
Student: What do you mean?
T: Are you breathing?
S: I don't know what you mean.
T: Are you breathing at the moment?
S: Yeah, I guess.
T: Good--because that is the only thing you are doing!!!

April Fool's Day

Last Thursday was April Fool's Day. I really hadn't planned on pulling any pranks on my kids, but it just seemed to happen naturally...after I realized that I can keep a straight face quite well. Earlier in the week, the top of one of my desks came unfastened on one side. This caused the desk to flip up if pressure was applied to the front. The first student in my third period class to bang the top while signing for their progress report happened to be the daughter of our Parent Booster club. I thought I would mess around with her. (When the desk first became loose in that class period, I told the boy who sat there that he would have to pay for the desk if it came apart.) So, I told this girl that she broke the desk and would have to pay for it. She was kind of upset, but I figured she would realize I wasn't serious. After school that day at tennis, I asked another student about it. She commented that she thought I was serious. I couldn't believe that. The next day, I polled the class and THEY thought I was serious! So, on April 1st, I said a lot of things and they kept asking "April Fool's?" WHAT FUN I HAD!!!!