"I was chewing gum, nothing unusual, when Mr. F said that there was no gum allowed in his room. He asked me to spit it out. I thought about spitting it at him, but then..."
And that's when the girl turned around in her chair to find me standing behind her.
"Can I help you with something?" she asked.
At this point, I wanted to hear the end of the story. Because I know Mr. F. He's not the sort of teacher who tolerates such misbehavior. And I wondered why she got so upset over so little.
And I wanted her to, oh, I don't know, perhaps...STOP CHATTING AND START WORKING!
Well, with me standing there, the story was at an end. Not that she got back to doing any work. No. She just started talking about something else.
It wasn't until I walked away that she went back to the story.
Alas, the reason I walked away was to assist another student, so I did not get the end of the story. Too bad. But that's usually how these things work out.
Monday, February 11, 2013
7 comments:
I appreciate your comments.
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
See this is why I wouldn't be a good high school teacher; because I'd be itching to say something I shouldn't, like, "I rather doubt you could help me but maybe, if you'd shut your trap and do some work, you could help yourself and learn something!!!"
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think that would be helpful.
I like your pull between hearing gossip and trying to get the students to get back to work.
ReplyDeleteMr. F? That isn't Briane Pagel's Mr. F is it? I know he has two kids called Mr. F and Mr. Bunches.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to blast names on the blog, so all student names are changed and all teacher names are abbreviated to initials. He doesn't go by "Mr. F".
DeleteShe probably didn't dare. Although I'm sure she told everyone how defiant she was or something.
ReplyDeleteI agree with JE that the student probably didn't dare (but I taught delinquents who dared to do pretty much everything so I could be very, very wrong), but not hearing the end of the story would've made me crazy.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you missed the end of the story. I'm willing to bet she went and spit it in the trashcan. Unless, of course, this story was the wrap up to why she happened to have in-school suspension that day...
ReplyDeleteShannon at The Warrior Muse