Thursday, November 3, 2016

Red Handed


Survey of biology. 4th period. I had covered the class the prior week, and things had not gone so well.

I insisted on silent attention while I was going over instructions. They would not stop talking. In these circumstances I can be a bit stubborn. What should have taken me two minutes took me fifteen. And that made me the enemy.

This day I still didn't have their attention, but I had less to say. I passed out their papers and left them to it.

Later, I did my circuit of the class, checking on the various students. Kareem wasn't doing anything. I reminded him that his work was due at the end of the period. He complained that he had no idea what to do. He said I had not "taught" them. (I'm not sure what he wanted taught. It was a worksheet to complete.)

Deep sigh.

They left. Then 5th period came in. Same assignment. Much more well-behaved group.

One student went to staple something, and he found the stapler empty. I found staples, and I went to put the staples in the stapler. Only, the stapler was broken. The spring thingy was missing.

Oh! That's what that long, tightly coiled spring was! I knew where I'd seen it.

While Kareem was telling me I was a failure as a teacher, he wound a long spring through his hair, around his head, and just generally pulled it apart. At the time I didn't know what it was.

Kareem was long gone, but I at least had the name of the one who broke the teacher's stapler. Too bad he made himself memorable. If he hadn't spent so much time doing nothing, I might never have noticed.

28 comments:

  1. Wouldn't you have loved to see the exchange between the teacher and Kareem the next day?

    betty

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  2. Kareem sounds like a creative individual. Too bad he doesn't use his creativity in a more positive way.

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    Replies
    1. If only he used his creativity to fix the stapler...

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  3. Replies
    1. He's probably got five inches on me (and I'm not short), so I think he's too old to be called a brat. I think he's graduated to jerk.

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  4. Maybe he was too busy dis-assembling the stapler to pay attention when you were teaching.

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  5. Someone above called him a brat and I have to agree. I can't believe he said you were "a failure as a teacher". Some days when you post, I am so glad I am neither a teacher nor a sub.

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    Replies
    1. Those weren't his exact words. Just the gist of his complaint. Which is funny as there was nothing to "teach". It was a &*^% worksheet.

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  6. Sounds like Kareem needs to pay more attention in class and less to destroying office supplies. I just checked my stapler, it must have take some concentrated effort to remove that spring.

    VR Barkowski

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  7. Well, it's easier to blame you than themselves. Some people just never accept responsibility for anything.

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  8. lol he shouldn't have made himself memorable! Silly kids.

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    Replies
    1. This is their first mistake. And one they keep making. It's the good kids who know how to keep their heads down.

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  9. Do you keep a list of miscreants? Sometimes I will read about Daemon or someone and wonder how they are doing.

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    Replies
    1. Not so much a list. I'll probably forget all about him unless he jogs my memory at a later date.

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  10. Yeah, if you want to get away with shite, keep a low profile for Heaven's sake!

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  11. Sound like these little ones needed some type of bounds.
    Coffee is on

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    Replies
    1. He's not so little... Yeah, but the reason they were in that class is because they don't do work. So, it was to be expected.

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  12. I remember as a kid that I had a very strange relationship with my teachers. I always moved faster than the group and just didn't have patience. It meant people would tell me to work and I literally wouldn't have anything to do.

    In elementary school, this meant extreme boredom. In high school, this meant I slept. A lot. Literally all the time. Amusingly, this habit continued into college for the first two years until I'd finished my AA. It wasn't until I was working on my BA I actually had a challenge that I felt the need to work on.

    Beginning of Semesters were always amusing/annoying because teachers would get pissed with me and order me to stay awake and work with the class. With one or two exceptions, this changed normally in 3 - 4 weeks when the results consistently had me in top of the class. haha

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    Replies
    1. Did you take advanced classes? That's where the "bored" students go now.

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    2. I did, honestly. I finished High School with a 4.9 GPA. AP and Advanced classes. Just never did anything for me.

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    3. Oh, you were one of those... I've met those students.

      One year, a boy explained how he kept himself entertained in calculus. He and a friend created a whole new cosmology. Based on the assumption that the universe wasn't infinite.

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  13. Oh dear, I fear I might have been a Kareem. I was pretty naughty - passive aggressive, but certainly not easy. Well done on the detective work

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    Replies
    1. It was the destruction of the stapler that bothered me. You didn't destroy staplers back in the day, did you?

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  14. Like Barkowski said, its not really easy to remove that spring.

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