The First One

I wanted to make title of my posts a different piece of literature that related to the topic but really, I am an educator and do I have time to do this? NO. Therefore, I decided not to make it harder on myself so I will be free to write as often as I feel led and have a sane moment to do so.

Due to the sensitive nature of some of my posts and the fact that I am not a tenured teacher and may be applying for other teaching jobs I have decided to remain anonymous. I appreciate your support and comments but please respect my anonymity and refrain from using my name! You can think of me as "teach" and let me tell you a little about myself and my classroom.

I teach in a rural town that is plagued with extreme poverty. The majority of my students are on reduced lunch and many have free lunch AND breakfast. I graduated from college in December of 2008 and began this job in August of 2009. I wish I would have started this blog earlier because there have been so many crazy stories I could share but it has seemed barely possible to stay afloat in this sea of planning, grading, and disciplining students.

The school I teach at is a Title 1 school which means many of the students are below grade level and many struggle to learn. The nice thing about teaching in such a rural town is my class sizes. The largest class I have is 19 students but even that seems like a lot to handle with the behavior of the kids. I teach one class of 7th graders and 2 classes of 8th graders. As hopefully obvious by my blog title, I am a Language Arts teacher.

I'm trying not to overload you with too much information (like I do with my students) so I will say goodbye for now. But first, my primary reason for writing this blog... to share annoying, funny, incomprehensible stories and to relieve myself from the frustration of the job. Hence, a story for you.

Yesterday I had to call a student's mother to let her know about a detention the student received. I had talked to this mother before and knew she was not very supportive but was also not difficult to deal with. I called and let her know of the student's misbehavior and the fact that he needed to work on his responsibility. As I finished telling her her son had a Tuesday detention I heard a click and dial tone. She either hung up on me or was disconnected. My husband thinks I'm spreading rumors but I truly believe she hung up on me. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. I suppose this may be the first time I am hung up on by a parent and may not be the last - I'll pray it is!

Ciao,
Teach