The Teacher is Annoyed with the Pupils

Yesterday was the first of 2 days of Washington DC trips for selected kids in my school. I opted not to attend either of these trips since I live too far from school to get here for 6am departure time. But many of my kids went on one day or another, and many staff members went as well, leaving behind a whole mess of chaos and coverages and class break-ups.

Yesterday, Chanya was in the hallway while I was teaching the other class, and she was tying her shoe on one knee and got slammed in the forehead with the large heavy swinging doors. She started screaming and was bleeding all over and repeating SOMEBODY HELP ME! I'M BLEEDING! and I saw 2 other teachers out there so I did not go out to help.

Later on, she was in my room crying and I hear her say to her friends "And Ms. _______ [me], she's supposed to be my closest teacher and I'm screaming and yelling for help and bleeding and she sees me and doesn't even DO anything about it."

OUCH. I felt awful. I obviously would have helped if she was not being attended to by other adults but I was teaching and she was being taken care of! She's right though, I should have helped her. Her friends were explaining to her that I was worried and couldn't leave the classroom and saw she was being helped but she wasn't having it.

Apparently there was blood EVERYWHERE. Her mother came and Chanya told me she "still loves me" but she felt all disoriented and couldn't remember anyone's names. I wasn't sure if she was being dramatic or silly but I thought she seemed genuinely confused and shocked and kept crying and saying "what's his name again? the light skinned boy who teaches the all-boys class?" and I'd tell her his name and she'd be like "I only remember like you and 3 other people." I hope she doesn't have a concussion, because that is what it sounds like to me.

I called her after school and she did go to the Dr. but he said she was fine and the memory loss would only be temporary. I am skeptical of this diagnosis. Today, Chanya is still weepy every 10 minutes and one minute she is all lovey with me "oh you called my house to check on me, thank you Ms. _______" and the next minute she's scowling because I wont let her go to the bathroom a third time before lunch. I wish there were no bathrooms in my school. Whether or not kids get to use the bathroom is basically the largest disruption to my day.

Today my co-teacher went to DC [which also meant I had to reschedule our trip to Central Park which interferes a lot with my lesson planning--now we have lost 3 days of play rehearsal b/c of kids on trips and they are supposed to perform on Friday!] and a number of kids were out so we combined BOTH of my classes and I had 32 children who were all very unhappy to be here b/c they weren't in DC and it's hot and they hate the people from the other class and I had to teach them pretty much all day long.

I am very close to bringing my own damn AC from my apartment on the train all the way here and installing it in my classroom. The heat is oppressive, we have no fans, the windowshades are broken, and some windows don't even open. And we're on the 3rd floor. I think that must constitute child abuse somehow.

I planned multiple periods of teacher-created Charades [kids were very confused, didn't understand how to act out names or titles of things and got frustrated and kept yelling out], Jeopardy [oh my god you would think I was pulling out their teeth they were so damn upset the whole game that someone was cheating or I was being unfair or they didn't get enough time to answer or blah blah blah, all over a stupid lollipop prize!], and finally, the Science teacher brought in Mad Hot Ballroom [I LOVE that movie] but it didn't work in the DVD player. And during 37.5 minutes, I tried to explain the guidelines of our Central Park trip and they were all "but I dont WANNA wear a uniform shirt" and "Why can't we go to McDonalds?" and "I want to bring my Gameboy!" and "but our other teacher lets us bring headphones!" and I basically said "If you don't like the rules, don't come." Man I am angry with them today. I feel like a stupid whiney mother "these ungrateful kids." I don't want to take them anywhere but I certainly don't want to have to TEACH them again. My brother is coming though [much to the delight of my female students who have already decided they like him] so that will make it better? Maybe?

I haven't seen NW [cursing-clockless-teacher] in a few days so I'm assuming she got fired or is at the Regional Office waiting for a final decree on her employment status. Her husband is still here but he does not make eye contact with me which is strange because we never had any interactions, negative or otherwise, regarding this situation. I guess it's like he said to our principal "You disrespect my Queen, I don't have to give you respect."

I'm SO over teaching.