Thursday, September 15, 2016

Doing Battle


"I wish Mr. W was our sub..."

I don't think Asia got the reaction from me she expected. She meant to insult me. Impune my abilities as a sub. Let me know I wasn't liked.

But what I heard was a validation. Instead of letting her do whatever she liked, I was enforcing the rules. Sorry, Mr. W, but I don't think you were a very effective sub.

(This may or may not be true. In a moment of such blatant insult, that's what I need to believe.)

What I said was, "Since I'm angering you so, perhaps you'd rather work outside..."

Which she did. For a time.

The next day, Asia was incensed. I was giving her attitude. Rolling my eyes. Giving her looks. All because was upset with her.

(I kind of wanted to explain projection to her, but everything I said started another rant, and at that point I was trying to shut the whole thing down.)

What set all of this off? The assignment was for them to read a chapter silently. Now, to me, "silently" means absolutely no talking. And that's what I enforced.

To Asia, "silently" meant she could discuss things with her friend, make a pretense at doing the assignment, and my insisting she not talk was completely unreasonable.

Deep sigh. Freshmen. *shakes head*

(She informed me that she was going to report me. For being unreasonable, I guess. I'll let you know if I get in trouble.)

21 comments:

  1. LOL, I love it that she would report you for you merely following the teacher's assignment. I think Jewel needs to get a dictionary and look up the word "silent."

    betty

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  2. Disobedient little shites.
    (I could never be a teacher. I salute your patience.)

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  3. Yeah, I'm sure you're petrified about what's gong to happen when she REPORTS YOU .

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  4. Trying to explain projection from those who do the most projecting is an exercise in futility.

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  5. LOL, all I can do is think back to when we had a sub in school. Our first thought was always, "Great! We can get away with stuff." Not true of all subs...the good ones kept control of the class!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I can see that in their eyes sometimes. They learn rather quickly that I don't play those games.

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  6. Replies
    1. Yeah. There are some loud and obnoxious students.

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  7. REALLY? Oh gods, no. Read a book quietly. How could you. *deadpan*

    I think if my teacher gave me this assignment, I'd be jumping up an down (until I was told to sit quietly and read XP )

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    Replies
    1. I know. It was so ridiculous of me to suggest it.

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  8. LOL. Did you get into trouble?? I'm betting not. What a brat!

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    1. Well, considering the response I got from the email to the teacher (she was aware of Asia's reputation from last year), and that I've been at the school two different days and I've heard nothing...

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  9. What a charmer. Her parents are raising quite a kid.

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  10. Too many kids have an inflated sense of entitlement. Can you imagine us ever DARING to say something like that to a teacher?

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    Replies
    1. I have a feeling her mother acts the exact same way.

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  11. I would say, "Oh, I'm scared!" Or that is what my son would have said, 10 years ago. So happy my teen has grown up!

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    Replies
    1. I didn't want to feed the tirade with sarcasm. Otherwise, that would have been the perfect response.

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  12. Wow. You have so much patience…

    Asia probably forgot about reporting you the moment class was over. Especially if the teacher was returning the next day.

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    1. Oh, I'm sure she did. It was just bluster, anyway. (The teacher had been warned about her, so she wasn't surprised by anything I told her that happened.)

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I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.