One Week Down. Nine to Go.

I felt confident I could teach beginning physics until I met my 105 students in 6 classes.

Their attention spans are barely seconds sometimes—especially the girls. The guys love the math and the puzzles physics presents, so they’re easier to teach.

Yesterday, a girl took one look at the assignment and whined, “It’s too muuuuch. I don’t want to doooooo it. I’m not going to dooooooo it.”

I told her she’d get a zero. Her response? “I’ll take the zero.” No whining there. then she looked at me and said, “It’s a dumb assignment. I’m not doing it and you can’t make me.”

That’s defiance and I told her so.

She volunteered to go to the office, tell them she refused to do the assignment.”

I reminded her to tell them she defied me.

“I will.” Off she went.

Earlier in the day, one boy, who happens to be brilliant launched into what the principals told me was “one of his tirades.” Defiance, then full blown rebellion, then an attempt at mutiny! He “requested” the Principal come to the room.

“Get XXXXXXX (last name only) down here! I’ll show him this crappy assignment and he’ll agree that it’s crappy and that you never should’ve assigned it!”

That’s when I called, told them I had a full rebellion, and they told me to send him—and the two girls who joined his crusade—to the office.

By the time they got there, his tirade ended. He agreed that he shouldn’t have been disrespectful to a teacher and became his usual brilliant, calm, quiet self. I’ve observed that he whistles through his teeth before a tirade.

A dual personality? Could be. Or maybe his IQ is so high that the rest of the humans in the school are mere morons to him.

Well, this moron stood her ground, didn’t move a quarter of an inch when he stood in front of me, about a foot away. I wasn’t afraid. I learned later that he’s beaten other guys in the halls for sudden switches into tirade mode.

A brand new teacher taking over for a beloved teacher has to go through orientation, seeing how far Mrs. George can be pushed before pushing back, and whether she’ll give in and give them the free period they want. That’s been going on since Monday. The rebellion may have ended the test period.

I’m not their beloved teacher. She’s at home with her daughters. Three years old and loving having a newborn sister. A living doll!

My first week was a running nightmare. Grading 100 tests, regrading half of each test, then trying to get make-up tests and corrections done to ship off to Mommy for a final grade for the corrections and entering the grades. If I’d had to do that, I have no idea what kind of rebellion might have followed this next week.

Monday, we’re skipping the rest of the Energy chapter with all its algebra and problems to solve, and going to Simple Machines. Applied Physics that will clearly “teach” the value of Physics for real life. We’ll be starting with two labs about pendulums.

Why are labs a good follow-up to rebellion? Because there will be puzzles to solve! The math-loving guys will love building things using simple machines, and, thanks to Christy, I have a doozy of a challenge for them on Wednesday.

Move a rock across a table without touching it. Can’t use a stick to push it. Have to have something else between the end of the stick and the rock. Best to use a level or pulley, or inclined plane. It’ll take some higher level thinking skills, for sure. It was a project when Christy was in college. Take that, brilliant boy! I might ask if he’d like to do that challenge by himself.

I don’t even have time for email during the week, so you’ll hear from me once a week, probably on Saturday. I’ll let you know how the simple machines/rock challenge work out next weekend.

Enjoy spring wherever you are! Please excuse any typos. I’m too tired to read through it again!

Hugs and Happiness,

Linda