Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine

I couldn't let this date go by without making a post--I've ever been draw to dates, even though there is no significance except for the neat-o numbers. So, here's to 9-9-09--I surely won't live to see the next one!

School is, well, disappointingly not shaping up the way I had hoped. I had a horrendous class last year. This year, they're not horrendous, but they are apathetic and disengaged. I can't get the attention of more than a handful at a time, and I am a good teacher. Really. But they just sit there, waiting for the next worksheet, and then they want to be told what to write and how to spell all of the words. (NOTE: I do use the provided workbooks, but not for everything. However, my class doesn't seem to care about doing other fun things. They just want opportunities to goof off and brainless work. No doubt that they've had plenty of the latter--what did they do last year?)

Another, continual frustration is the constant humming and soft-voiced singing that goes on. It's torture to me--please, make the noise stop! It begins so softly that I don't notice yet. As it continues, I soon find myself reacting subliminally. I tense up and get snappish--that's when I figure out that that darned humming is going on again!

So, I've got hummers, apathetic students, and a few behavior problems. I moved some desks today, but it seems that I'm back where I was last year--too many problems among the students (talkers, trash-talkers, gossipers, etc.) and not enough "good" students to tamp down the proclivities of the others. Like the Bridges of Konigsberg, it becomes a puzzle with no solution.