I actually growled today!

It was one of those days today. Nothing seemed to go right, and I ended up having a splitting headache before 11 a.m. I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but I definitely wasn't "on" today.

There are some jobs that you can coast through when you know you are having an off day. When your job involves "performing" for a group of 20-30 ten-year olds they pounce the second they realize you are having an off day. And pounce they did! There was talking. There was bickering. There were refusals to sit. There were refusals to work. There was pouting. There was shouting. And yes there was growling! All of these things ended up being true for the class, as well as true for me.

When a class won't quiet down and do there work, it forces a teacher to think on their feet. Sometimes creative thoughts occur, other times they don't. One girl got upset with me because I asked her to do her assignment, she got a little pissy and gave me this stern look with a little rumbly growl to go along with it. So the mature adult that I am, I turned and stared at her and gave her an even bigger growl. The rest of the class found it hilarious. Pissy girl immediately started saying that she never growled at me---so I turned to the rest of the class who were now on my side---did anyone hear Pissy growl? Almost immediately every hand in the class was raised high.

And no, I didn't really call the girl Pissy (I told you I would be making up names for the students----I didn't say they would always be positive names....did I?)

Did the growling help the class settle down? Hell no! Did it make me feel better---yeah for a minute or two.

Funny incident number 2 for the day. Another male student, Billy, was talking constantly today---so I moved him to another table away from his buddies and next to two girls. Billy kept trying to move back to his buddies, so I kept sending him back to the table with the girls. About the 3rd time that I moved him, he said to me in front of the whole class, "I'm going to tell my Mom what you did. She'll make it so you aren't our substitute again!"

Oh no, not your Mommy!!!! Do I honestly care if I sub for this class again? NO!!!!!!! Do these silly kids actually think it is a privilege to be their substitute----get real? Does a ten-year old actually think he can honestly threaten a substitute teacher with the threat of his mommy?

Don't get me wrong, I have some regular classes and schools that I love going back to----but I have absolutely no problem refusing to ever go back to a school if I don't like it. I might go back to this school---I don't think I would go back to that particular class again.