Talk to The Hand

School Site: THMS

Subject: Math

THMS is the highest scoring middle school in the district. The teachers are usually older, and the students usually come from the affluent GT area nearby, it's where all the white people ran to. 

I like coming to this site for many reasons; I have a buddy who is a custodian, it's the closest school to home and GameStop, so I can get to work easily, and the kids are often pretty good.

The first class I had here had the fear of god in them and it was bliss. It was a history class, the students had an individual worksheet to work on and life was bliss. I  sat at the head of the class made sure no one was destroying property and helped them out with the worksheet. This of course was encouraging when it came to taking other jobs at this site, sub day at THMS? Yes please!

Unfortunately not all teachers are quite as effective as this history teacher was, and I found this out the hard way. 

Many of the classes I have subbed for at THMS have been Math classes. Graduates know how it feels to be in a class for 3-4 hours, we're either asleep, researching anything but the classes subject, or finding new and inventive forms of suicide, 3-4 hours is rough! Now imagine your are fresh out of elementary school and because you did not test well in math the district feels you need a double block of this in order to give you more practice. So, you are now stuck in a subject your struggle with for 2 consecutive hours, I feel for them,  this sucks for them, and it sucks for me. The trend goes that the first period they are usually pretty good, they this is a fresh start, they are trying to figure out what the assignment is for the day, who this new strange person is in the class, etc. Unfortunately second period is not so calm, the students have reached their wits end by this period and so they are loud, obnoxious and incredibly restless. 

The math class I had for the day seemed simple enough, periods 1-6, 7th period off and I was good togo. I've had previous math classes that were double blocked, it wasn't so bad, the students were still restless by the second period, but nothing obnoxious or out of the ordinary. 

Periods 1/2:

Today's class was a completely different story. The assignment for each class was to do a practice test. The first class was very talkative, there was an aid for the resource kids, and the two of us combined were ineffective in quieting this chatty off task first block of classes. Will I have help each period? "Nope" replied the aid as she booked it out the door. Crap. 

Period 3/4:

Alright, new block, lay out my rules, lay out the assignment for the day, and hopefully things should be uneventful. This would be a great plan, if it were not for one asshole kid. Now hear me out as explain just how disrespectful one kid can be. The second period of this block, of course, UO starts chatting, talking to other students around him, and in general just being annoying. I call him out on this multiple times, 

"Blue jay (because of his Toronto Blue Jays Shirt) knock it off!" 

"My name is not 'Blue Jay'"

" Then what is your name?"

"…" 

"Blue Jay I'm asking you once again, knock it off!"

Finally I say, 

"You have 5 seconds to calm down before I call security to take you to the Vp's office."

 He responds to this by mocking my count down, cool, off ya go! While I'm trying to figure out phone this little punk packs up his stuff, gives me the "talk to the hand" gesture and walks out. Still not remembering what the extension was I called my custodian buddy and give him a heads up about the situation. He says they picked up the kid, and everything was cool. His punishment was pretty lax because I saw him headed to his class the next period. I was pretty calm during the situation, but I have never experienced that level of disrespect in my life, and especially not by a 7th grader. I made sure write him a referral, he already had a few in his file, which means this was not an isolated incident, but seriously what kind of parent raises such a monster? I was always a good kid in school so I really do not understand this bad kid behavior. 

Periods 5/6 (almost finished)

Right away there were two girls who was just talking non stop. I was explaining the assignment, I explained the previous period was bad and I was in no mood for bad behavior. But middle schoolers, in all their infinite wisdom, assume that when I can't see them I also have temporary deafness, I have never figure out this "logic." The two girls continue to disruptively communicate across the classroom. If I hear one more peep out of you, you're headed to the office " ok." I turn around and see one of the girls flailing her arms, "Alright see ya!" "But Mr. C! I was just counting," unfortunately I have learned not to take the word of a 7th grader in trouble, they are masterful with their excuses. I send her and her buddy up to the VP's office and was rewarded with a class that remained quiet for the rest of the two periods, yes!

I haven't been subbing for a long time, and the students are usually unresponsive, I get it, I'm only there for a day, "You're not my real teacher!" Most days I'm just a well payed babysitter, but I will never understand or tolerate the level of disrespect I experienced today. My biggest request that the students remain quiet, and not kill each other, but I never belittle them in front of the class or tell them they are fat, "gay", or smelly, and believe me some days they smell! They are kids and they do not deserve an environment they do not feel safe or comfortable in. Conversely I do not deserve a direct defiance or showboating at my expense. That's the real unfortunate part too, most of the bad shit that goes down is just so they can look cool in front of their peers, one on one most of these students are incredibly responsive.  Sure I can joke about this situation in retrospect, but man that really pissed me off.  Being a sub sucks because they're not your kids, they don't care, and somedays you get assholes. Just need to stick it out until my opportunity arrives, wish me luck!