Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Shaming

I had to have a sub, and all of my classes were perfect except one group of enriched sophs.

That one group told the sub that they didn’t have to pick up their trash because the janitor would do it for them. They also told her that presentation skills didn’t matter in the projects they were doing (a lie), and so a couple of boys did their talk while lying on their backs, kicking their legs. They also played their videos in slow motion because the group slated to go after them wanted to stall one more day.

Some other kids refused to give the sub information about the activity they were requiring of the class. She wrote to me that “the class has a lot to learn about self-control.” When she told the kids she’d never seen anything like their behavior in all 30 years of teaching and subbing at the high school, they told her that maybe they were acting that way because their teacher wasn’t there.

It’s fair to say I was less than pleased.

A letter was written and read to the class expressing my distinct displeasure. The letter was designed to elicit maximum guilt. The letter included information about the dangers of by-standers: if you think I'm not speaking to you, the letter said, you better think again.

The letter said that the sub report reflected a failure of the whole. The whole certainly included me, the letter said, because I had made the mistake of trusting them with too much independence.

And so we go to 9. Days, of course. I’ve decided I’ll forgive them when they work up the guts to speak to me.

3 comments:

trulybrilliant109 said...

Well, maybe it was a good thing I was told they were unable to make an offer at this time.

KC said...

No, that's just shitty. And rude besides - what about a nice voicemail with a conciliatory message? It seems the offender has a lot to learn about being nice.

Amy Cress said...

Sadly I had the same thing happen with my 6th grade students this week, but in all of my classes. So I had them write a note apologizing for their behavior.

I also stated that some of them were rude and inappropriate, while others did not step up to the plate and show leadership. They were very quiet for about ten minutes after that.

I am ready for summer!