Did you really just say that out loud?!? March 19, 2009

 

I can’t believe what some of the students will say and do to teachers in that place (Cairo High).  Things I would NEVER hear in my own High School growing up.  Things I would be embarrassed to say as a student.  If I was a person who was easily embarrassed I would be red in the face, but usually it doesn’t have that effect on me.  I just tell the boys they are being inappropriate.  Girls too, but usually the boys.  The girls roll their eyes or smack their lips where the boys are just flat our INAPPROPRIATE!  Not just with me either, it seems to be across the board.

I was going to write  a list of some of the quotes on here so you could get a taste of my work environment, but then I realized it is probably not even appropriate to write on my blog.  It’s not terrible, but you get the idea.  I just have to remind them they are speaking to a teacher and usually they will pull it together and stop.  I don’t get upset or anything, I realize there is a major battle (spiritually speaking) going on for the souls of these students.  I just love them.  I try to anyway.  I try to love them with Christ’s love and see them through His eyes, and then I am not offended.  Really, it’s hard to get offended with someone you love and know is coming from a place of wounding and not really trying to say things to hurt or do things that are inappropriate.  Wow, good preaching, as John Bevere would say.

Another thing…how common is plagiarism in High Schools today?  It’s so EASY for them to do it…but man!  It really gets to me.  I have to sit down and have a little convo. with a student  who did an extra credit (for cookies mind you – sine I teach Math and not English).  He copied the WHOLE paper!  There were words in his essay that I know he does not even know the definition of!  Wha…?  And you think you’re going to get away with that?  No Sir!

Before you start to judge or think too critically about the students at Cairo High…I want to paint a better picture.  Sure, they struggle with some things, but they are mostly wonderful and I give them a chance.  We actually have a lot of fun in my class, and they are are learning too!  And, it’s not all of the students who speak like that and certainly all of them are not plagerizing. I am learning how to keep my class in order, disciplining in love.  They know I care for them, but they also know they can’t get away with stuff.  Sometimes they crack me up…I’ll discipline a student by moving him to the front of the room.  The others will say, “She’s shining you man!”  No, it’s called consequences to your actions.  I guess when discipline is lacking in other places, it is hard to understand at school.

God is teaching me how to speak to the students in truth and love.  I am learning.  It’s not always easy, but it’s always good.