My last period of the day was horrible. They were out of control and nothing I said or did seem to have any effect. I finally got so fed up that I stopped mid lesson and made them sit in silence for the rest of the period. I gave them a lecture about being rude and disrespectful, to me, to each other, and to themselves. I told them that they needed to remember that they were in high school and not junior high and start acting the part. Also, I reminded them that I have "bent over backward" to give them opportunities to learn and get their grades up so that they don't fail the quarter. As usual the drama queens were in full swing, unable to focus on anything that wasn't "fun" - by their own admission. I feel sorry for whoever hires these kids and expects them to actually work for the money they'll be paid.
That's not even the best part of the day... After school, I walked out of my classroom and headed to the Math lab to chit-chat with anyone who was around. About 8 minutes after the bell rang, I was about to leave when a student came around looking for me. He said, "Mrs., how long are you going to be here?" To which I replied, "about 90 seconds." He continues that he needs to make up a test and that I need to stay while he does it. This is funny for many reasons:
- The test was the previous Friday when he was in in school suspension.
- He's know about the test since the Wed before it was actually given because I told him about it specifically when we spoke of what work he was missing while in the suspension room.
- There has been a sign posted on the door since last Friday with the names of everyone who missed it and the deadline for making up the test: Friday, May 6th.
- This student has a study hall, gets to school early on the bus, and stays afterschool everday.
- He also usually spends his lunch period messing around with his friends and grabs a bag of chips and a soda just before his lunch ends.
- The official policy only allows one day for each absent day for make-up work, so by giving him 5 days I have been more than generous already
- he has done no work in class this whole week and just sits there pounding out beats to rap songs and going through the lyrics under his breath.
All of these don't matter, however, as he continues to argue that he has had no time and since I wouldn't let him take it during class (which is true, but he actually never asked so he doesn't really know it's true) I should stay after (he also works ridiculously slowly and would literally take two hours to do the 17 questions) so that he can stay eligible for track.