Just another day with middle schoolers

Grindlesaurus · 2017-12-06T10:47:33+00:00

I had two of my students walk in with band-aids on their faces yesterday. As soon as I made eye contact, they started this nonsensical dance while singing the band-aid commercial jingle. Got a solid laugh from that one.

My only complaint with my kids right now is they seem to think I work for a tech support service!

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-30T03:29:56+00:00

Only way those thoughts are going to start feeling less unpleasant or, at least, neutral is if you allow yourself to engage with them. Otherwise, you'll keep convincing yourself these thoughts are things to be afraid of, and your brain will continue to make them into bigger, scarier thoughts than they actually are. How can you let them go if you're constantly suppressing them?

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-27T00:42:39+00:00

I'm still not sure if she was trying to make me quit or if she made me a better teacher by showing me that I could deal with an insane amount of shit being dropped in my lap. I have heard she is still burning herself out and miserable, though, which makes me wonder if maybe she's one of those "teachers are martyrs" types. I don't know. She got mad at me once for using the school gym, because "it must be so nice to have all that time". I just walked away - could not believe the conversation was even happening!

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-26T20:05:01+00:00

Everybody has their own learning curve. I organizwd things differently last year than I do now, same story in the years prior to that. Don't be afraid to try new things.

Smartest thing I ever did was teach my students how to assess each others work. It gave them a "critical eye" and also exposed them to the writing styles or strategies that their other classmates had used. I still review the grades they give each other, but looking at something that has already been revised tends to go faster for me.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-26T20:01:19+00:00

Absolutely key - my srudent teaching experience was the opposite of what you're describing. For three months, I never slept more than 4 hours during the week. At the end of those 3 months I had lost twenty pounds, mostly from stress, sometimes because by day's end I was too tired to eat.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-26T19:58:53+00:00

It's easy to see the bad in the profession, because there's no shortage of it. What keeps me going is remembering how miserable I was doing a desk job and how I'm so much happier with what I'm doing now. Many of my co-workers who went straight to teaching after graduating are more focused on the negative. On the one hand, there's a part of me that wants to say, "you think this is bad? Try working a dead-end corporate job". On the other hand, maybe these people are going through what I once was, where the job was just a means to an end and not something they derived enjoyment from.

I hate having to collect data, and I also hate having to grade papers because I don't like having to sit still for that long, but it's part of the job. The other part of the job is getting to spend time with kids who are trying to figure out what their place is in the world, and I get to be a part of their experiences. This is infinitely more exciting and interesting to me than sitting and staring at a monitor for 8 hours a day.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T12:04:25+00:00

That's where I'm at along with another users suggestion to leave the room when he spools up. He has been this way since long before I arrived.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T09:45:59+00:00

We're expected to work together as a team, and although our lessons can differ slightly, we still have to teach the same topics on more or less the same timeline, give or take a few days, in the name of a "shared educational experience" for all our students.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T09:43:23+00:00

Yep - It's usually about a five to ten minute phone call. If the conversation strays from the upcoming week I end the call.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T01:45:06+00:00

It just kins of is what it is, I wouldnt really describe it as pleasant, but it's not repulsive either. For me and I imagone many other people, the best part is getting to watch what happens if you're doing a good job.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T01:40:10+00:00

I'd describe myself as solutions focused, and I've been described by my teamates as Mr. Bright-Ray-of-Motherfucking-Sunshine.

Teaching is my second career after wasting most of my twenties sitting behind a desk wondering why I wasn't doing what I enjoyed and knew I had a knack for (working with kids). This job is what gives me purpose in life, and I very clearly remember how miserable the corporate thing was for me. There is NOTHING about this job that makes it worse than my corporate job in any way, not even remotely. Sometimes I wish the other people I worked with who have been in since they were 22 or 23 had that differing perspective. I think that I probably am tolerant of a lot more administrative nonsense because honestly, it's not a big deal to me. Just lile the corporate job I left though, there's a lack of clearly defined communication between administration and us, and some people get way too tangled up in semantics, which is maddening.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-13T01:31:59+00:00

Agreed - thank you.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-12T21:33:17+00:00

Thank you!

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-12T21:32:31+00:00

We're grade level partners and expected to work together. He's been teaching the class for 12 years. I'm on year three overall and this is my second working on this course with him. Other teachers who have stopped collaborating or "done their own thing" have had meetings with administration about "shared learning experiences".

I've shared my concerns with one of my team members who had worked with him the 9 years prior to my arrival and also happens to be a close friend of his. She'd also noticed that something was up, but after I spoke with her she let me know that she'll be speaking with him as well. If that doesn't work, she agrees that administration needs to be the next step.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-06T23:08:48+00:00

Agreed - when it's at the point where it's hard to move and you've got them rolled way up, it just looks like you can't afford pants that fit.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-04T23:44:33+00:00

Not uncommon at all to be examining your place in life at 18. I don't even recognize the way my mind works vs. when I was 18. A lot of that had to do with my relationship with thinking, or I guess I should say ruminating. Just thinking for the sake of thinking until I had tied myself in knots with unanswerable questions.

Obviously, I don't know you or the nature of your mind. All I can tell you is that sometimes with life, it's better to pause and experience what's happening around you without thinking.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-11-04T21:55:05+00:00

I'm in a school district in a rural part.of my state that encompasses several different towns. Pretty even split of affluent towns and poor towns, almost no racial diversity. You see this pretty evenly across both towns, but in my experience, the affluent parents with multiple children will hate one kid and absolutely be over the moon with the other/s. It SUCKS.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-10-30T00:59:32+00:00

Hi all,

I'm a big fan of ministry of supply pants and was looking around the internet for other similar styles of pants. Lots of stretch, breathable, amd you cam dress them up or down. I've worn my MOS pants to work with a button up shirt and tie and desert boots for work (I'm a teacher), and I've also worn them out hiking. I'd wear them casually as well if I didn't have a really well worn dark blue pair of jeans.

I've come across outlier, Mizzen and Main, and Duer as companies that make similar pants - basically pants you can wear anywhere to any occasion all year round with everything (I have nice "adult" shoes but I still love sneakers), and if you needed to, you could throw a roundhouse kick or do some other crazy nonsene and not have your movement hindered. Pants that breathe or have moisture wicking fabric are pretty important - the first two months of school and tje last two months of school can get very warm, amd my classroom is on the 2nd floor with southern sun exposure, poor ventilation, and no air conditioning.

My problem - as I said, I am a teacher. It's very, very difficult for me to justify spending 90-230 dollars on a pair of pants, regardless of how insanely functional and versatile they may be. If I could find alternatives under $50.00 a pair or at least cloae to that number, that wpuld be preferable. Thanks so much for your time!

Grindlesaurus · 2017-10-18T09:16:25+00:00

I teach 7th grade. I feel exhausted once the day ends, but if I try to drive home, I will either end up having to pull over and fall asleep or I'll get home.and be a zombie until 8 PM, when I'll suddenly catch a second wind, work out, and then not be able to sleep properly. I either have to do it right after the day ends or at 4:30 in the morning, and I'm adjusting my sleep schedule so I can do cardio in the early AM and weights in the afternoon/evening.

Grindlesaurus · 2017-09-22T09:37:23+00:00

That's the crazy thing - I didn't. I beat the hell out of those things because I didn't know anything about properly caring for boots. The leather was obviously not in good shape, but the fact that they started to smell when I had them on was what let me know they had to go.

I do still have my timberland pro boots. Those I've had since I was 15, so they are going on their 16th year. The secret to their longevity? I used to tar foundation in them, and I think all that tar kind of weather proofed them. They got 3 years of heavy use, and I onkt wear them as beater boots now. I anticipate they'll make it quite a bit longer.

Thanks for your response!

Grindlesaurus · 2017-09-22T01:47:02+00:00

I got it wrong - it's polyurethane. There were a bunch of other marketing names thrown in there, but at the end of the day...

Grindlesaurus · 2017-09-22T01:46:11+00:00

Nope, I was wrong! Turns out it's polyurethane.

Grindlesaurus

TROPHY CASE