#i did read the other 8th grade lesson plan and took notes so i can fill out the peer review worksheet tomorrow

[diobrando]

Finished my 60 pages of reading already (:

[lovemesomesurveys]

“Like ships in the night, you keep passing me by”

Do you own a black leather jacket? A pleather one, yes. Something badass about wearing one haha.

Do you find musicians or athletes more attractive? I’ve been attracted to more musicians, but that’s cause I’m more familiar with them. I don’t see a lot of athletes as someone who doesn’t watch or care at all about sports. Although, guys in baseball uniforms are nice. haha. Oh, back when I was like 13 or 14 I remember thinking Andy Roddick, a tennis player, was hot. I saw his photo in a magazine. Are you better at spelling or writing? I think both. How many siblings do you have? Two. If you could have an ice cream sundae right now, would you? No.

Do you use emoji's? Yeah. I don’t go crazy, but I like to use them as I see fit. When was the last time you lost a tooth? I broke a tooth like 10 years ago and had to get it pulled. You ask this question like it’s the norm to loose a tooth when I’m pretty sure the people who take surveys are past the ages where you lose your teeth.  Do you like bendy or regular straws better? I like to use coffee stirrer straws cause the holes are small. If someone signed you up for karate lessons, would you take them? Uh, no. What's your favorite song? I have numerous favorite songs.

Click shuffle on any music device. What's the 12th song that comes up? Nah. What's your most used website? Tumblr and YouTube. Do you come on this website as much as you used to when you first found it? Not as much, no. I used to spend like all day on Tumblr back in the day. Now I typically just get on at night as part of my nighttime routine of Tumblr and surveys. That’s also when I watch the most YouTube cause I like to listen to ASMR at night. I feel like I probably go on YouTube more now than before or perhaps it’s about the same. Do you drink hot tea? Once in awhile. It’s usually when I’m feeling really anxious or really sick.

“& it’s too cold outside for angels to fly”

Is there anyone you want to see in concert really bad? I’m sad I never got to see Linkin Park. I don’t know if they’ll decide tour now, but it wouldn’t be the same without Chester. :( Do you like Abercombie? Nah. Do you still take a survey even if they don't capitalize letters? Yeah. Does your computer have word correct on it? It’ll do the red squiggly line if something is misspelled or it doesn’t recognize the word and if I hit control and click on the word it’ll offer a suggestion if it’s a recognized word. What's one of your wishes for 2013? Well, we’re towards the end of 2020 now and I just pray we’re able to get through the rest of the year without anything else crazy coming at us. Do you fight with your mom often? No, my mom is my best friend she and I very close. We just bicker sometimes. Would you rather have your son have the name Daniel as first or middle name? Sounds more like a first name to me, but meh I don’t really care for the name at all. I don’t even want to have children so it doesn’t matter lol but if I did I’d go with another name. Have you ever made up a food combo & everyone tired it & loved it? Pizza rolls and mustard. What was the last movie you watched? Would you recomend it to people? Bringing Down the House the other day cause I happened to catch it on TV. It came out in like 2003 so it’s not new, but I’ve always liked it. I think it’s funny. What is one word you cannot seem to spell? Every time this question comes up I always say “onomatopoeia” for some reason and damnit I have yet to spell it right without having to look it up. I don’t know what it is about that stupid word that I just can’t seem to remember lol. It’s a word I never use unless this question comes up, so I guess maybe that’s why, but still. I should be able to spell it. Were you born on an odd or even number? Even. Do you like Ed Sheeran? I like several of his songs. When you type, what hand & finger do you use to hit the space bar? I use my right index finger. I don’t type the proper way, I use my index fingers lol. I type really fast that way, too. Do you like to take pictures of you in the mirror? Only if I want to show the shirt or outfit I’m wearing.

“you are the best thing that’s ever been mine”

Have you read the book Lord of the Flies? Yeah, it was required in my 10th grade English class. Would you rather type or hand write notes? My handwriting is trash, but I feel like handwritten notes are nice. Do you like the number seven? I don’t have anything against it. Do you believe that when you go to heaven, you become an angel? No. I believe in angels, but not that we become one. Angels are another of God’s creations. They’re ministering spirits. They’re their own thing and humans are another. How much money do you plan on spending tomorrow? I don’t plan on spending any money tomorrow. Are you good at writing poems? No. I dabbled a bit with it when I was like 16 and angsty, but they’re so cringe. I still have the journal stored away with them and I’ve gone back to read them as an adult and yikes. Do you come on here daily? For the most part, unless I’m really not feeling well. What's one thing you wish you were perfect at? No one is perfect, but it’d be nice to be a functioning adult.  Can you play the saxophone? Nope. Does it bother you when people breathe loud? I will say I feel uncomfortable when someone has a breathing problem because it makes me hyper focused on my own breathing and I end up feeling like I can’t breathe.  Are you going to any concerts in 2013? Can you believe it's going to be 2013? I didn’t. The last concert I went to was back in 2009. Were you in love with the movie Mary Poppins? Not in love with it, but I like it. Do you like breadsticks? Yes. Have you ever been on a mountain? Yeah, I took a gondola ride up to one. If you had to get rid of one of your sense, which one and why? I’d really rather not.

“the first cut is the deepest”

Can you swim? Nope. Do you usually wear shorts around your house all year long? No, I wear leggings all year long. Do you remember Sesame Street? Of course. It’s also still very much a thing. Do you believe every word that comes out of peoples mouths? Of course not. You have to take some things with a grain of salt or healthy dose of skepticism. You gotta gauge what is being said and who is saying it, too, and make the judgment. That doesn’t mean I don’t trust my loved ones or that I think everyone is a liar or something, but people can give misinformation unknowingly, so it’s not always being done intentionally. It’s just not a good idea to believe every single word that comes out of people’s mouths. Do you like the questions that really make you think? Depends on my mood.  What are you asking for for Christmas? Just a few little things. What time do you plan on going to bed on Tuesday? I don’t have a set bedtime for any given day, I go to bed whenever.  I’ve talked a lot about my messed up sleep schedule in surveys. It’s certainly not planned. How many of your friends are online right now on here? I have no idea who’s currently on. I’m kind of the night owl of the survey community who’s up doing surveys while everyone is asleep like normal people. When they’re getting up in the morning, I’m going to bed, ha. :X Do you know what Je means in French? I do, actually. How often do you write in red pen? I don’t recall the last time I used a red pen. Do you cut your own hair? No. I used to trim my own bangs back when I had ‘em, though. Do you have any pictures in your room from concerts? No. Would you ever name your son Harry? Again, I don’t want to have children, but Harry is another name I don’t particularly care for. Have you ever had your nails done in french tips? Yeah, the one and only time I got my nails done, which was for my 8th grade promotion. Is it harder for you to type on a keyboard that isn't yours & not used to? Yes, for sure. I also don’t type as fast on my phone than I do on my laptop. 

“I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller”

What shoe do you take off first? Hm. I think my right. What do you think a good teen couple name would be for a story? Uh I don’t know? If you were coming to the states from another country, where first? I’m from the states. Would you pay $82 for facial products? No. Do you get a lot of compliments often? Nope. It’s rare. Was Mean Girls one of the best movies in your opinion? I wouldn’t say it was the best movie, but it’s a favorite of mine. It’s just a classic, ya know? One of those nostalgic movies with a lot of memorable quotes.  If it was Sat, 2 in the afternoon, what would we find you to be doing? I’d most likely be asleep. Do any of your best friends have red hair? No. Would you like to be on the cover of Seventeen magazine? No. Or any magazine. Would you rather go to an Adele or Bruno Mars concert? I mean, I like songs from both so I wouldn’t be opposed to either one. Would you like to live in Sweden? No, but I’d love to visit. Are you concerned about your weight? Yes. I’m too underweight.   Do you know anyone who has the middle name Sebastian? I don’t think so. Do you remember where you got your first kiss at? Of course. Did you ever watch the show 8 Simple Rules? I watched it here and there cause it was part of the TGIF lineup that had other shows I liked.

“I hope you’re in the mood, because this is going to be a long ride”

Does your computer need to be cleaned? Underneath the keys badly need to be cleaned. Would you ever name your child Sushine, Raine, River etc? I kinda like Raine. Is it any of your friend's birthday today? No friends.  When is the person you like birthday? I don’t like anyone in the romantic sense. Do you like yogurt? Nah. When you type, do you ever mix letters around by accident? (EX: ot - to) Yes. Do you like butterflies? No. I’m afraid of ALL bugs/insects, even the ones people think are cute like butterflies and ladybugs. Nopeee. Do you consider the tomato a fruit or vegetable? Tomatoes apparently can be referred to as either one. I always thought they were a vegetable.  Does it rain over where you live? Yes. It hasn’t rained since like March or April, though. We Californians get excited when it rains cause it doesn’t happen often lol. I hope we get some soon. It’s been cold now at least, which I love. Is there any snow on the ground? It doesn’t snow in my city. :( Do you like soup? I only like ramen. When's the last time you made cupcakes? It’s been a few years. How many lamps are in the room your currently in? My lights are off. Have you talked the person you like today? Have you ever been bullied? No.

[moony-jamie]

Okay long post that may or may not be shorter than expected but here we go. (I just wrote everything and it's pretty long, I think)

This will mostly be about things that happened in the past few weeks that made me emotional? Kinda? Stuff I want to talk about aka screaming it into the void that tumblr is. (Apparently it's mostly about football and my exams)

I'll put it under a keep reading thing, hopefully it works.

Okay where do I start?

I feel like I spend more time being emotional about football than worrying about my finals. Magdeburg was involved most of the time but also football that shares one braincell and the DFB hasn't seen it in a long time.

But let's start at the beginning.

On the 8th of May 46 years ago Magdeburg won the Cup Winners' Cup. Since it looked like the season will be cancelled and Magdeburg could go into a financial crisis, the fans organised a fundraising event in which they sold tickets for an imaginary trip to Rotterdam to win the cup a second time. This started around the 5th of April and went on for a month.

Obviously I got a ticket too and spend a whole week basically camping in front of my mailbox waiting for it. It took five days and I cried when it came.

It's beautiful, I love it a lot, one of my favourite players singed it, I'm in love.

They even managed to show the game in a re-live so that's the story how I screamed and cried after my English exam because we won the cup (again).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qBL15JPO4g

And well then this video made me cry again and I feel like I spend more time crying over Magdeburg than actually studying for the exams but it's time well spend I guess.

(And no we didn't actually went to Rotterdam it was all imagination but it was great anyway)

During all of this Magdeburg desperately tried to get Milan's attention (for a possible rematch in four years for the 50th anniversary) by tweeting at them in badly translated Italian. Honestly that club is as dumb as I am and I love them a lot.

Apart from that football was all about pain the past weeks, starting with the fact that I can't scream my emotions out during football games? Like idk if it's a good coping mechanism or not but screaming for 90 minutes straight always helped me a lot.

Now I'm really mad that the DFB decided to start Bundesliga behind closed doors because first of all the Bundesliga is nothing without it's fans. Second, ending the season early would be the better option but well I told myself to calm so I will do calm.

BUT THEN they won't stop arguing about the 3. Liga and honestly I'm done with this shit. At least Magdeburg is the club with the braincells and said they want to end the season (I guess I chose the right club to stan).

The thing is Magdeburg isn't legally allowed to train or even play here in Saxony Anhalt but well apparently the DFB doesn't care and is now pressuring the politics into either allowing them to play or they will take away Magdeburg's (and Halle's) license and honestly that is so fucked up I can't believe it's actually happening.

Football, what a fun sport to stan :)

Enough about football tho, lets get into the important stuff. Or well the reason I actually took a break from tumblr.

My exams went surprisingly well despite the fact that I had to stop studying at some point because it just stressed me out.

It all started off with my Chemistry exam which was pretty easy. Besides my business administration exam it was the one that stressed me out a lot because I almost failed the mock exam and I just had a bad feeling overall.

But then I saw the tasks and everything was so easy?? Of course I started stressing again because I was finished with still an hour to go but then my classmate told me that she saw the teacher grading it and I had a lot of points already and?? I was so relieved?? Honestly I could've cried.

My English exam was the next one, two days after Chemistry.

There are two main parts in this one. The first one is the listening comprehension (nightmare of every German student) the second one is the written part.

In my school we have one room that has a very good acoustic in which the listening part wouldn't be a problem but due to Corona they talked about closing it because it might be unfair when it couldn't be used for everyone that wrote the more difficult exam (I not in the mood to explain the whole system right now but if you want to know more about it dm me).

Thursday I wrote my English teacher if she knows how it's planned right now and she confirmed that they will be using this room and that I will be in this room for the listening part. That was the first time I actually cried because of my exams.

Now English wasn't particularly bad but I have a weird feeling about it. We will see once I'll get the results.

My German exam was the next one and just like with the English exam I have a weird feeling but we'll have to see.

I got good results in both of my mocks so hopefully it will be fine.

The last one was my business administration exam and oh boy. I was stressing so much, I couldn't look at my notes without having a breakdown and it was bad, really bad.

I was praying for marketing to be a big part but of course my prayers weren't heard and there wasn't a single sign of it at all.

BUT luckily the main part of the exam was easy. Well not too easy but it was a topic where I didn't think they would make it the main part but they did. It was about loans.

Well we better don't talk about the rest of it but if my calculations are right I should get the required points.

I really don't want to get hopes up but I'm pretty sure I made it.

There is one exam left still but it will be some time around June and hopefully pretty easy so I'm not stressing too much right now.

Now that I finished the hardest part I hate how everyone was stressing me even more. People basically tell you that if you don't start studying months and months in advance you won't make it but?? No, it's not that.

I can't speak for other exams of course because well maybe we had a Corona bonus or whatever but I don't think so.

It really seems to be easy (at least for all the nightmare stories I always heard).

Also wtf F1? I walk out of my German exam and see that Vettel left Ferrari. Got my crying the whole day because well I don't mind him leaving Ferrari as much as I mind should he retire. I really don't want that.

And then I walk out of the business exam and they announce Carlos to Ferrari and Dan to McLaren. As if I wasn't emotional enough, F1 really decided to play with my feelings here huh.

But what else happened except for football and exams?

Well I walked my dog every day and saw all kind of animals during so. I don't know if it was because there were less people outside or just because we have a lot of fields and forests in general but it was pretty cool.

We saw rabbits, foxes, deers and even a snake (I only saw a wild snake once in my life so that's pretty cool)

Also managed to took a (bad) picture of a deer, isn't he cute?

Also a week ago my mom convinced me to buy a bunch of guppies for our tank and ever since we got them my betta got herself a goth girlfriend and I'm??? So soft??? For my gay fish??

They're very shy tho and I didn't manage to get a good picture of them yet but it's really cute. They're always hanging around each other.

Last week I was also able to go to the stable again since Jody isn't actually my horse and they only allowed owners on the property to stop the people from taking riding lessons.

This picture is from today, I wanted to take pictures in this field ever since I missed it last year and most of the flowers stopped blooming back then.

But I was able to go back and can go there again now that I have some free time and I'm just so happy.

Unfortunately now they aren't in full bloom either because we missed it again (thanks Corona 🙃) but the picture is nice enough so I don't mind too much.

By now I can't really think of anything else that happened.

As I said I'm now working on my Fanfiction. In theory I wanted it to be done by the end of May but I don't think I will make it but I'm not stressing myself with it either. Every chapter is more or less plotted so I hope writing will go by a little easier.

I don't know how many people actually read it until this point but if you did, thanks 💙

I'm just happy that I got all of it of my chest now since I wanted to talk about all this but I was getting tired to annoy my mom with it.

[prorevenge]

THAT'S ILLEGAL ANYWAYS!

To start this off, I want to mention I have never been very good at school, (Except for in early elementary school). But man was 7th grade a difficult year for me. At my school, there were three houses for the 7th grade. A house, B house, And the personalized learning house (C house). Me, being somebody who has had issues with the traditional school learning style, applied to the personalized learning house. While the other houses had 4 teachers, (One for Science, Math, Writing, and reading) we had just 3. (An all in one english teacher).

The beginning of the year started out ok. I was getting 3's and 4's on all assignments, (We did not have letter grades yet). I stayed quiet, kept to myself, and showed interest in what was being taught. Things continued on this way for a while. Suddenly my math teacher was getting agitated just by things like me asking questions in class. I assumed that there must have been some kind of thing that had happened in administration or whatever, they could have just been annoyed. I put up with their aggression, however eventually the whole mood of everything started to change, and I wasn't able to focus in class. This was in addition to my undiagnosed ADD at the time as well.

My grades were really starting to suffer, and I was somebody who was always trying to succeed in school. I even applied for a college scholarship that year, I went home one day to talk to my parents about how much I was struggling, and how my teachers were being aggressive. I got the standard lecture about me just not taking enough initiative. More frustrated than before,

I went on to school the next day. My teachers were REALLY on edge that day. Due to my previous confusion in math, I did not have my assignment completed for that day. I openly told my math teacher about it, and asked if she could help me with some things during our study hall. She angrily told me "You can't even complete a single sheet of math on your own. I'm not sure how much I can help you." I was pissed. Before that, her aggression had been mostly passive, but she was being a huge bitch.

I walked to the door, tossing my math sheet in the recycling (Because I'm eco friendly) on the wary out. I made my way down to the guidance counselor, and requested a meeting. I'd never liked her either, but maybe she could help me. I expressed to her how stressed out about this I was. I felt like I was being targeted, and treated unfairly. THIS WAS JUST THE BEGINNING. After I finished my solid 20 minute rant. She told me that if I were to be focusing, she wouldn't be annoyed with me. (Again I had undiagnosed ADD) I pretended that I understood and cared what she was saying. Little did I know, our entire meeting, she was constructing a badly worded email to my math teacher. I continued my day, pissed off, and stressed out.

I came back to school the next day, Sat down next to my friend (I'll call him J). And got started on the math work we had been handed. I was talking to J about some of the problems, which he had no issue understanding. I remember saying "I don't get this!" At the first scent of blood my teacher walked over with the most fucking evil look on her face I have ever seen. "I just taught you all of this! How do you not understand it?" I couldn't keep myself contained, "I don't know!" Her face was red with anger. "And I suppose it's my fault! Because apparently you don't think I'm doing my job." As frustrated as I had been with her, I had NEVER said that. "What?". This is where I found that my genius counselor had sent an email to her with everything I had said about school, and her. She interpreted my issues with my concenration, and her attitude the wrong way. She had also filled my english teacher's brain with the same shit hers was full of. Now it was two against one. J was watching all of this, along with the other 24 kids in the class. "Y'know what? Get your crap attitude and leave". She dragged me out of the room by my wrist and shut the door. This is where I started to exact my revenge.

My brother, similarly to me, had been having issues in school. My father had bought him a digital audio recorder, so that he didn't have to take notes, he could just listen to the lesson again. My brother wasn't all that interested by the idea, and hadn't used it at all. I took it to school the next day. During work time in my math class, I was talking to J and some other friend about my goals to become an engineer later when I grew up. I saw my math teacher walking over with that same shit eating grin as earlier. I pressed record on the recorder in my pocket. "How do plan on being an engineer if you can't even do this math. You probably aren't going to graduate high school, what makes you think you could get through college?" I kept my calm, knowing I had proof of her bitchiness now. "I wan't to do this math, I'm just having trouble understanding it." She literally started fucking panting. "Excuses aren't going to help you. Have fun failing all of your classes in 8th grade." PURE FUCKING GOLD. This single instance was a treasure trove of revenge material. However, she was the kind of person who acts really pleasant to parents and other adults, but like a nazi to students. A few days later, in her class, a kid was talking, and making harmless comedic comments on the math problems. My teacher swung around. "Will you shut the hell up? Jesus Christ!" I had that recorded too. Shortly after, the vice principal walked in, she put on a smile, and they started having a casual chat about the changing lunch schedule. Recorded. By the end of the week I had had enough evidence to fuck her over .

Monday morning had come. I didn't bother with my counselor again, I went straight to the principal. And played him the tapes. He said that maybe we should all have a meeting together. This is EXACTLY what I had wanted. My math teacher walks in to the principals office, sees me sitting there with a recorder, and I swear I could hear her shit herself. She sat down. At immediately ripped into me. "What is this about? Are you trying to be awful? Did I do something to you?" The principal asked her to wait a minute. He asked me to play the recordings again for her. She rebuttaled first with "You deserved everything I said." I was now the one with the shit eating grin. "What are you? 5?" I saw a vein pop out of her neck. SHE LOST HER SHIT. "THIS IS ILLEGAL ANYWAYS. YOU CAN'T RECORD ME LIKE THAT. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? I'M THE ADULT HERE! I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! THIS IS ILLEGAL!". I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pocket constitution and read off at least three things in support of my actions. Then I pulled out a notebook in which I had jotted down information of some kind of congressional act. She was starting to tear up. The principal asked me to leave the room.

​

She was not at school the next day. Or at all after that. She was given the option to resign, or be fired. I'm not supposed to tell anyone this, but fuck it. Enjoy my first case of pro revenge.

(source) story by (/u/RavingwolfYT)

[kramersamantha]

Lesson 1: Document Document Document

MONTY ADAMS*

1st Quarter - 2008:

Mini-Skateboard

Spare mini wheels

Mini screwdriver

click...click...click...click...whiiish...wheeeee

Grinding the board on the edge of a desk then SLAM SLAM...”hehe nice”

In a classroom. 20 other students. Cooperating teacher looks at me for an answer.

This was my first year of teaching. One student. Would he take me down? Would I let him? Would they let him? Who could stop him?

2nd Quarter - 2008:

AXE body spray

Blue

Orange

Mini can

Value Pack

Spritzz....spritz....SSSSSsssssssss......”aaahh nice”

Coughing. Sighing. Complaining. 

“Miss...do something!”

What now?

That’s the moment as a first year teacher when I had to find my voice and find my way. Monty wouldn’t take me down. He wouldn’t derail every lesson, every day, all year. Or would he? He wanted to. He could if we let him. So what do you do?

LESSON #1 Document Document Document

It was this early in my career that I learned to keep a paper trail. I didn’t know yet what I would need it for, but when I didn’t know what else to do, I stood in the back of the room and wrote down everything.

9/2/2008 

Period 2: Monty asked to borrow a pen rather than take one out of his bag.

Intervention: I asked him to take out his own and he complied

Period 5: Monty took a very long time to fill out the book receipt.

Intervention: I sat next to him and walked him through each blank space, it was completed successfully.

Period 6: Monty clicks the end of pen on the desk for 10 minutes. He refused to take out his notebook.

Intervention: Mr. Shell from the middle school came up and spoke to him. He told him to act like he is in the 9th grade and that there is plenty of room back in Junior High if he wants to do 8th grade again. Reminded Monty that his "mom fought hard to get him here but MS Franklin Heights would take him back in a minute."

Period 8: Monty was talking out. Later he wouldn't fill out the note card about himself. Monty wouldn't take out his notebook or take notes.

Intervention: I asked him if he wanted to dictate the work to me. He did for a few minutes and then took over on his own so that he could participate in the activity that was going on in the classroom.

THINGS ESCALATE QUICKLY...

9/12/2008

pd 1 8:45am Class is doing work in Math and the instructions do not allow calculators. Monty takes out his calculator and begins using it do his work.

Intervention: Both teachers in room ask him to put it away multiple times. He is told it is not allowed and he needs to learn how to do these exercises without a calculator. He refuses and ignores the teachers. When I get my notebook out to write down his behavior, he stops using his calculator and puts his books away. 

pd 2 9:15am Monty does not want to sit in his seat for the Quiz. He finally sits but then picks his desk up and bangs it on the floor. 

Intervention: Ms. Kang tells him it is unsafe and not appropriate for the classroom. He still does it. Kang goes to get the Dean. Monty says to me, "Ya get Ms. Corn. I wanna talk to her right now!" Ms. Corn is in a meeting and can't come to the class. During the Quiz Monty taps loudly on the desk and whispers to classmates.

9:35am Ms. Kang begins lesson and Monty yells out, "Shit!" Another student says, "Watch your language?" Monty responds, "What up nigga?" 

Intervention: Kang tells him to talk in a professional way. He says, "I don't wanna talk professional! I'm not professional."

pd 5 11:15am Monty comes into class with a note that he was just with Ms. Corn. He slams door, sits down and puts feet up on the desk. Then says, "The F**king nigga teachers got me in trouble for no reason. I don't wanna be in this school."

11:35am Monty is banging loudly on desk to a rhythm, singing along with himself, "Uh…hey…uh…hey…soul….my bitch."

Intervention: I ask him to stop banging because it is impossible to teach with the banging. He stops and then starts clapping loudly to the same beat and sings the same tune. 

11:40am Ms. Curtis hooks her computer up to the LCD projector.  On her background is a picture of her son. Monty yells out, "Ugh! Get those niggahs off the screen!"

Intervention: He sees me write it up and says, "See, now she's writing me up for saying niggah."

And on and on and on...

Have you had a Monty? What happens to them? 

Well I could write for three days on all of the incidents there were between September and December, and the pages of anecdotals I was forced to type from my handwritten Composition Book for the lawyers at the inevitable hearing that took place after he was jumped on the street outside of school and both kids went away for a while.

LESSON #2 The Most Extreme Cases Usually Take Care of Themselves (more on these later)

What did I learn and how did it impact who I am as an educator and a leader?

The hundreds of interventions we tried and used and tried again and tweaked; that’s the “win” here. We may not save every student. We learn from each case and make it better for the next one, and help ourselves to help other students who are crying for help. 

SO here it is. Interventions we used that began to fill my toolkit that I would take with me wherever I went and with whoever I was working:

WITH ONE STUDENT!

Prompting

Redirecting

Refocusing

Positive praise of appropriate behavior

Clear expectations

Repetition

Directions read and explained

Direct Language

Verbal prompts

Non-verbal prompts

Student conferences

Timer for work completion

Timer for breaks

Timer to take data on off-task

Tallies of foul language

Tallies of aggressive behavior

Point system for on-task behavior

Planned ignoring

Assigning seats

Moving seats

Removing materials

Providing additional materials

Scaffolding tasks

Chunking tasks

Kindness

Soft-spoken encouragement

Jokes and laughter

Build Rapport

Modifying classwork

Modifying homework

Modifying assessments

Pair with preferred group

Pair with non-preferred group

Monitoring duties

Leadership opportunities at school events when possible

Referral to the Dean

Lunch detention

After-School Detention

Conference with the Dean

Functional Behavior Assessment/Behavior Intervention Plan

Edible incentives

Work related incentives

Conference with administration

Conference with guidance

Counseling with guidance

Teacher collaborative meetings

Parent meeting with teacher

Parent meeting with guidance

Parent phone calls with administrator

Parent meeting with administrator

WITH ONE STUDENT! 

EVERY STUDENT DESERVES THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT THAT “MAYBE THIS ONE WILL WORK...” UNTIL YOU’RE OUT OF ROAD...OR UNTIL THE STUDENT HITS THE POINT OF NO RETURN.

Recap:

Lesson 1: Document Document Document

Not because the lawyer needs the data, that may be the reason at first. Ultimately, the paper trail you keep becomes your road map and personal professional development. Reflect, rethink and revise the action plan to achieve a greater result next time. There’s always a next time. 

Lesson 2: The Most Extreme Cases Usually Take Care of Themselves 

Unfortunately, teachers are the first line, and an extremely crucial component, in the growth and development of children when they are in our care. But we don’t have them with us ALL day, and it is often in the unstructured and unsupervised hours, they have free will to do what they impulsively will do. It is then that they end up making the bad decisions that remove them from our classrooms and schools, and thus out of our hands without warning - and there’s nothing we can do about it. 

Just as students do, they come into our classrooms temporarily and they are told we will teach them. More often though, we are taught many lessons from our students and it is those lessons that we take with us after they have left out doors.

[fuckyeahbadasswomen]

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Margaret Tobin was born on July 18, 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri to John and Johanna Tobin; two poor Irish immigrants. Contrary to the myth, she did not survive a flood as an infant not did she have a nanny goat for a wet nurse. Maggie, as she was known back then, was educated by her aunt up to the 8th grade, equivalent to a high school education today. She then began seasonal work in the Garth Tobacco Factory for several years. Pretty soon, Margaret was 18 and had no suitable marriage prospects. In the spring of 1886, she bought a train ticket and moved out to Leadville, Colorado to live with her brother Daniel and hopefully to find a rich miner to marry.

James Joseph Brown

At first sight, Margaret rejected any idea of possibly marrying James Joseph Brown. She had come to Leadville to find a rich husband, and JJ was by no means a millionaire. However, after just a few months of courtship Margaret decided it was better to marry for love rather that money and on September 1, 1886 they were married. Pretty soon they had two children Catherine Ellen “Helen"  and Lawrence Palmer “Larry" Brown.

Family Portrait, taken in Leadville

After marrying JJ, Margaret began lessons with tutors, studying reading and literature as well as piano and singing. The happy family lived comfortably for several years in  Leadville right up until the US government repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, switching from silver backed currency to the gold standard which is still used today. This was really bad news for Leadville, which mainly relied on silver mining. Long story short, JJ discovered gold, became a millionaire and the family moved down to Denver.

The Family Home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver

Now for the good stuff.

One of my personal heros, Margaret was an incredible humanitarian, philanthropist, feminist, and activist.

Some of the incredible things she did include (in no particular order):

Organize soup kitchens for poor miners and their families in Leadville, with her two small children in tow no less

Helped form the Denver Women’s Party, was involved in Colorado politics, and was part of the women’s suffrage movement at both the state and national levels

Was fluent in 5 languages

Donated money to the Denver Dumb Friends League (animal shelter, still open today)

Organized the Carnival of Nations, a festival in Denver to raise money for the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. She had booths representing cultures from all over the world, including Native Americans, which was very much frowned upon. She and her husband JJ also donated quite a bit of their own money to the project. Interesting side note: once the Cathedral was completed, Margaret attended every Sunday she was in town. She was known to walk in a few minutes late (you can literally see the cathedral from her house) so everyone would have to turn around to see what she was wearing that day.

She worked with Ben Lindsey to create a juvenile court and detention system, similar to the system in place today. Before this, children would be tried as adults and sentenced to adult prisons, or left unpunished entirely because the judges couldn’t bring themselves to send child into such awful conditions. Margaret hosted functions (including an annual function at the Opera) and donated some of her own money to help fund Judge Lindsey’s cause.

She ran for state Senate three times

Margaret’s official campaign portrait

She attended the Carnegie Institute

She organized nurses and supplies in a relief station in France where she herself was an ambulance driver

She offered her cottage in Newport, Rhode Island to be used as a hospital

She translated books to Braille for soldiers who lost their eyesight due to mustard gas

She earned the French Legion of Honor Medal for her efforts during the war (really big deal!!)

Yes, she did survive the Titanic. But there is so much more to the story than Hollywood makes it seem. Margaret was on the deck of the Titanic and used her 5 languages to help get people off the ship. There was supposed to be a training drill the morning before it sank, to this day we don’t know why it was cancelled. Margaret is telling the passengers things like “it’s only a drill, you’ll be back soon” knowing this was the best way to save as many people as possible. Many did not want their families to be separated, or they did not believe the ship was actually sinking. You couldn’t tell until it was too late. It is believed that Margaret would have gone down with the ship had she not been forcibly put onto a lifeboat by two crew members. Once her lifeboat reached the water, Margaret took off her many layers of clothing (she dressed like an onion before leaving her room) and distributed them to the other women and children in her life boat. She then instructed the first class women to begin rowing. This was important to a) prevent hypothermia and b) not be sucked into the ocean by the undertow of the ship when it finally did sink. Once their lifeboat was found by the Carpathia, Margaret used her excellent organizing skills to collect and distribute blankets and clothing to the survivors of the Titanic from the passengers of the Carpathia. She also collected money from the first class passengers and survivors to give the the third class immigrants once they reached New York. She had some difficulty convincing them to donate, so she put a list with all the names of the first class people with the amount that they had given (or not) it didn’t take long for the 1st class passengers and survivors to realize they should donate as to not tarnish their name. She raised $10,000 equivalent to about $250,000 (USD) today. When the Titanic Survivor’s Committee was formed, she was of course appointed chairwoman. She attempted to testify in the Senate hearing but was turned away because she was (shocker) a woman. She did however help fight to change Maritime policy to families first (instead of women and children first) and ensure that there will always.be enough lifeboats, life jackets and properly trained crew members to prevent disasters like this in the future.

When on vacation in Florida her hotel caught fire, and she helped guide the other people on her floor out the fire escape to safety

She sang, yodeled, played the piano and classical guitar

She worked as an actress in NYC, living in the Barbizon hotel (men were not allowed past the lobby, this building was symbolic of a cultural shift in the ‘20s). She also taught acting, and had her own studio in the hotel.    

She died in her sleep in 1932 from a stroke brought on by a misdiagnosed brain tumor. She is buried in the Holy Rood Cemetery in New York.

Margaret Brown is so amazing and I can go on about her for days. Forgive my rambling.

Sources: Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iversen

Random facts I know (I give tours in her home)

Pictures: Google?

If you have any questions, please ask!

I’m planning on writing about Justina Ford (the first African American female to be a licensed physician in Colorado) next, but if you guys have any suggestions please let me know!

[misterrad]

Analysis Essay - Lesson Share

Most often, I write and share things about the big ideas in education. I don’t tend to share a lot of stuff about, you know, what I teach. But, hey, you know what? I just did an analysis essay unit that worked really well, so I thought I’d pass it along to anyone who may want it.

See, 8th Grade is a real big year for the brain. Many students are becoming increasingly capable of abstract thought. For most districts, this means that students start tackling Algebra in 8th grade, moving away from the more concrete concepts of years-prior.

Anyone who has taught Algebra, or at least next-door to it, knows the process can be downright painful for students whose brains are telling them they aren’t quite ready to figure out what the hell x is.

The same is true in Language Arts class, where we start to move past book-reporty projects and sentence-starter worksheets and towards things like literary and cultural analysis. It’s our Algebra, the concept that will be a foundation to nearly all upper-level work in our subject. As I wrap up my first major unit introducing Analysis, my students are widely showing that they are ready for that next-level work so long as it’s scaffolded, and show they can thrive when given freedom of what they read and how they read it.

Intro to Analysis:

    To introduce analysis, we spent a few fun classes practicing deconstruction on lots of different pieces of media. We watched commercials, movie trailers, and music videos (with one class-discussion-type-assessment around Beyonce’s Formation video). Students practiced writing down the pieces of what they saw, and were introduced to Critical Lenses (if we watch this commercial and isolate race, what do we see?  Ok, now, let’s watch it again and look only at Gender).

    My favorite intro day is when I gave the students copies of Picasso’s Guernica without any background information and had them deconstruct (literally, with scissors) the painting into the pieces that they see, and then create an analysis by re-constructing it on another sheet in a way that created meaning.  The discussion that followed in nearly every class led to some brilliant insight on the work.

    Oh, a note here about “bad” English students. Years ago I noticed that students that came to me feeling like they were not very good at reading and stuff often thrive at analysis. Also, some students who are very good at playing school and doing worksheets struggle mightily at questions for which there is no right answer. So, you know, keep an eye out in these discussions for new leaders.

The Analysis Essay:

Books:

    I’m convinced this project wouldn’t work half as well if I told the students what to read. Instead, I gave them a few days to look up books they may want, read excerpts and reviews, and do their best to choose a book they were truly excited about. I approved them, but did my very best not to say “no” to anyone. I started the process early in order to give students a chance to track their books down at libraries and track down copies of books myself as best I could. I also put in a bunch of work over the last couple of years to build up a classroom library that is full of new, high-interest books that students want to read, specifically books by and about people of color and women.

    The results were pretty sweet. Students continually surprised me with their choices and the lengths they would go to track down a book they were interested in. All this meant that students were, more often than not, excited to have time to read.

Reading:

    I didn’t require a lot of students during the reading phase of the project. I had students write out a hypothesis for their essay, what they thought their essay was likely to be about, and suggested rather strongly that they figure out a way to track lines and quotes from the book that matched that hypothesis. I also gave students choice about how to track those quotes while they read. Some took and annotated pictures on their phone, some used tabs and post-its, and many folded a sheet into their book and wrote down lines as they came across them.

Writing:

    As we got towards the end of the project, I realized that it was more important to me that my students wrote a few great analysis paragraphs rather than longer essays that were less wonderful. I decided to keep the whole project to four paragraphs, with an introduction and three analysis sections.

    Again, we did some all-class practicing, reading a short piece of text together (I used the Dave Eggers forward to my book, because I really really love it), deconstructing it into an argument and three pieces of evidence, and then writing a paragraph.  Students did those in a day, and the next time they came in, I divided them into two groups; one that needed more help on creating the analysis, and a group that got the analysis right and was ready for a challenging writing activity.  I sat mainly with the first group, helping them work together to construct an argument and find quotes, then checking with each student to make sure they wrote an effective analysis paragraph.  The other group was introduced to the concept of Active vs. Passive voice through an activity they could do in a self-directed way in small groups.

Active Voice Quickly Activity

    Once we got through those activities, students were ready to start planning and writing. To get them thinking about Thesis Statements, we had a class discussion about a rule or law that should be changed. Many groups picked Dress Codes, and we worked together to come up with a main argument (“Dress codes should be eliminated”) and supported arguments (“They are sexist, poorly enforced, and limit expression”). We used our conversation to write a thesis statement (“Dress codes should be eliminated because they are sexist, poorly enforced, and limit expression”), they got over the fact that I tricked them into talking about thesis statements by getting them all worked up about dress codes, and I set them to writing their own using this planning sheet:

Introduction Paragraph Planner:

    Once their Introduction (with Thesis statement) was done, students could break up the supporting arguments of their thesis into different paragraphs and add quotes from their book as evidence, then write them into quality analysis paragraphs using this planner:

Analysis Paragraph Planner:

    Quite honestly, I struggle getting kids to edit (and peer-edit) well. This sheet was my attempt for this project to focus some of their efforts in cleaning up their rough drafts before turning them in:

Editing Doc

Wrapping Up

    Now that we’re wrapping up and 156 essays are finding their way into my inbox (and, soon, taking over any free time I may have dreamed of having for the next week), I’m feeling really good about how this project went.  If I were to do it again, I would give them more time to read (many students had to start organizing and writing before they were all the way done with their books), and would keep the end due-date from bumping right up against the end of the quarter.

    That said, trusting the students with a lot of choice in what and how they read, in where they sat and how they used their time has worked really well for a great number of kids. Funny how when you give kids freedom over their learning, they tend to do more than when you force them all to do the same thing.     Especially when trying to push them to new, challenging kinds of thinking, giving them choice seemed to be especially important.

    Hope some pieces of this help some of you, and I’d love to hear how things go if you do use any of them. Please free to use and change any or all things linked here.

[doriscahill]

America is Beautiful

Below is photo-narrative of a recent holiday. A round-trip land excursion totaling 3,000 miles over 13 days. 

When driving, your more engaged and take your time, a better sense of the expanse of land, narrowness of each town, differing weather and nature.. Deliberate avoidance of large cities; utilizing only their  joint to other roads. Dots on my map but not stops. 

Put Paris, Barcelona, Hong Kong, et al on hold. American is rich in history, community and beauty. 

Attempt this route in the fall and attempt  to beat cold weather. Cold sets in mid October, luck held and this trip can parallel  Indian Summer, an unseasonably warm period.  

Enjoy.

Nestled in the West Stock Bridge, MA is the Norman Rockwell museum. The studio and home of this most famous illustrator. Western Massachusetts, is very quaint and this town’s  population about 1,300. The museum grounds have  lovely walking paths through the property and the artwork lines the gallery walls with and up and downstairs floors. Its design exceed expectations  for those with disabilities.   

Other artists and genres are on rotating exhibit, Sesame Street on this particular visit. Standard exhibits like Saturday Evening Post Illustrative covers are just thrilling, 100′s organized by year and cram the walls. Its easy to enjoy the main galleries, but take time to see the  studio in the back grounds and to stroll the river trail dotted with modern metal sculptures.   

You can reach this charming gem from metro Boston in under two hours and easily reach New York state through-way to continue your travel. Note, in  the fall season the town hosts a lovely Harvest Fair and allow time to  walk the  turn of the century style main street. 

The cost is a sliding admission fee. Adults $20, Students $10 and Seniors $17 and Veterans $17. Members are FREE.

If you’re looking to continue on west, next stop is Amish Country in Lancaster, PA.

From West Stockbridge, MA  its a bit of a jaunt to Lancaster Country and Amish Country. Lancaster is the  the first of two stops visiting Amish communities. Allow 5-6 hours, so leave early in the day.  Lancaster is  unique. Various historical/cultural  tours are available. Some are closed on Sundays, keep this in mind.  The Amish Experience Tour Agency offer packaged deals.  I enjoyed the re-modeled school house and living quarters and the 14 passenger bus ride through the Amish land, passing meticulously kept farms, sampling “shoo fly pie” and rich discussion of Amish life. I did not take the horse and buggy tour, but ample options are available. Small negative, Lancaster  is a bit commercialized in the center. And in fact, the community has its own bank. Educated only to the 8th grade, math and business skills are well utilized. Amish are particularly successful in business.

Continuing on Berlin, OH also in Amish Country is the next suggested stop. However,  if your heading to Ohio, you might as well enjoy Hershey PA. 

Its a good idea to squeeze in a trip to Hershey, PA, about a half hoiur from Lancaster and  on the path to Berlin, Oh.  The story of this City  is a gem, both US history and capitalism gone right. One learns about the business founder  and philanthropist Milton Hershey and chocolate! Milton, a businessman who failed many times before achieving great success with affordable yummy candy bar. Visitors can visit Chocolate World for free and take the free Disney like tour and get  free chocolate bar. The factory no longer gives tours and the town no longer smells of chocolate. 

You can also take a trolley tour through Hershey its well  worth the $16 adult ticket price and more free chocolate. Tour guides are very experienced and tales of the town built by Milton! The facility is a huge shopping mall so you can stock up on branded souvenirs or participate in other paid activities like build a chocolate bar, a bit pricey at $26 dollars each. 

On toward Berlin, one takes the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is long and a bit pricey to the tune $18 dollars. Note,  Beaver River and Raccoon Creek are near the highway so  anticipate significant road kill. I lost count after twenty. Its not a happy thought at all.

On arriving in Berlin, Ohio, the  second Amish Country stop I am treated to the Harvest moon and I try  to snap an amateur photo. Berlin has a differing feel than Lancaster. There is a local wholesome Amish dinner theater, you can purchase tickets online of visit the ticket office. A small ensemble of actors deliver humorous  slap-stick that involves the audience and the music is simply fun. Especially, Amish-parody of pop singers. You can sample local dinner food and walk the shops. There is a local post office in the main street if you’re thinking its time to mail postcards, quilt and leather shops. Plenty of hitches of buggies. Buggy horses are athletic, most purchased from Kentucky breeding farms.  

Do squeeze in time to sample local breads and cheeses, The store as easy to  with an area map, but watch out for the horse drawn buggies, the horses are athletic. 

Next stop was suppose to be Indiana. 

Exiting Berlin your in for a treat expansive farmlands. Fields of corn or soy and the occasional lumber farm for miles. 

All trips have delays and missteps.  The original plan involved an overnight near the Indianapolis Speedway, but the airshow was cancelled and, well, that is how it goes. The trip to Springfield , IL will be long. 

Diner food is great, but wears on the traveler a week in.  Its a full days ride to the next stop Springfield, IL. Lincoln’s home town and the State Capitol. Indiana is between Ohio and Illinois and that is about 5 hour stretch.  Fortunately or cleverly, a huge highway bill board sign reads “Beef House”, “Next Exit!” Serving beef you can eat a late lunch or early dinner.  They serve a fantastic early bird special with full salad bar. Yum, yum and Great Service. Actually, best meal so far! I stuffed the bread and leftovers to go. 

Outside you can take  a nice selfie with the Bull. If your Vegan or Vegetarian you can get all you need to eat too. Compared to East Coast pricing this is a $$ deal! Onward to Springfield. 

Arriving late day I review the available area maps and plan for the next day. Downtown has the Lincoln Home and neighborhood. The ranger guided tour though Lincoln’s home  is free, but you need to get a timed ticket in the visitor center. You can self guide the small restored neighborhood and see the continue historical film that runs in the visitor’s center.  On site parking is paid, but very modest and if you like to walk you can easily visit the surrounding free sites: The Original State Capital, The Lincoln Depot (my favorite) and Lincolns Law offices. All are simply great.  The Presidential Museum is not free, but worth its ticket price. About a mile or two from the main tourist area is Lincoln’s final resting place and well worth the drive. There is other tour options should you not have a car nor wish to walk. Most hotels have maps and the tourist center near the Old Capitol Building does too. 

On a side street in the restored neighborhood enjoy local feel good dishes or a Ghost Tour and scribble your name on the chalk board! I had the mushroom cheese burger, yum.  In the evening local theater is nearby to catch a movie! You can easily your interests in two days. 

Next stop is Kentucky....

Off to an early start again and time for the big U-turn back.  Head towards Kentucky’s capital Frankfort, a hidden American gem and  well along  the process of renovating its downtown and its  historical treasures. The state known for horse racing and breeding is this  well worth the stop. Kentucky’s landscape is rolling;  the farms expansive.  Apparently, Johnny Depp resided part of his youth in Frankfort and was born in KY!

A variety of Company’s offer morning tours take tourists to  Keeneland Race track and near by breeding stables. You get to meet famous retired race horse Curland, see  resting place of Seattle Slew and all the inner workings of the race track including lessons from the local “Betologist”. A second day can be spent visiting Buffalo Trace Distillery  with  tastings for modest cost or take the free trolley tour through Frankfort with a knowledgeable guide. The Trolley Guide was so friendly and knew everything about Frankfort!  Carve our time for Buddy’s Pizza and a trip to Hoggy’s for a scoop of ice cream. 

Next stop on the list is West Virginia, find time for  nature walk. It’s a  nice option before more time in the car. Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary will take you a half hour off the path but the tranquil 1 mile walk is well worth it.

Under-crowded this reserve has a number of marked trails, so its tough to get lost and the trails are modest or not hard. Do pay attention, the maintenance paths seem like they are part of the trail. Mostly, you enjoy nature and will here a wide variety of birds in the woods.

Curlin 

Resting place of Seattle Slew

Every Trip has a road which can be a challenge. That road is Route 219 leading to Marlington West Virginia from Frankfort, KY. . Its paved well, but winding  and rolling along the way for miles and miles 9-12% grades. If your seeking to be off the grid  Marlington is the place.  There  no cell coverage, so you will need a satellite GPS and rely on internet when you reach it or bring a printed map. This is hunting and ski country, population about 1,000. 

The small town has wonderful local restaurants in the main town, a home depot store, museum and civil war cemetery (small admission fees). The big attraction is in near by  Cass, WV pop 52 and home to the historical Cass Railroad  and Green Bank Telescope. Both offer tours, I missed the radio telescope tour, bummer,  tour hours are limited but did see it from the road.   It is the worlds larger radio  telescope and supposedly the reason behind the  cell phone black out.

But, but,  I did visit the Cass Railroad State Park and took the open train ride and ride to the top Bald Knob, elevation  4843 feet. Knowledgeable local guides share the rich history of foresting and the railroad, the trains and its rescue after the collapse of logging. You will learn much about engines, whistle blow language,switch backs and loggers. You need a full half day for this tour, a a picnic lunch is provided with your ticket. There is a small museum and general store. Toot toot, goes the whistle. Do not miss it. 

Give yourself three nights the ride in and out is a bit tiring. The next stop would be West Point. 

This is a long haul, because I wanted to stay true to remaining rural, thus avoided stops in Philadelphia, NYC,etc. 

Arriving late by error, the sun was setting and my travel service Exepedia pointed me to lodging that was really too far from West Point. I stayed in Kingston and was a bit disappointed although the local diner did make up for this disappointment or misstep.

If visiting West Point, you are going to need identification to pick up or purchase tickets at the main visitor center. Since this is a Federal Facility plan on bringing a real ID or passport as the ID laws change in 2020. For now, driver’s license is adequate.

Tours run routinely each day. There are a few days it is closed from the public. The army cadets live on base so that is really cool. There is a bus campus  and cemetery tour combo package. Both involve walking, wear good shoes. You can pick only the bus tour, far less walking.

Enjoy the history of the founding and the site’s role in the Revolutionary War. Learn about all the famous generals and enjoy the majestic architecture feats, sports stadium for Army-Navy games,  memorials and lore of those you made the ultimate sacrifice. Walk the cemetery and learn all the famous people buried and there stories and who can be choose this as their final resting place George Armstrong Custer is buried there! . The scenery is beyond beautiful. 

There is a free museum to walk while you wait for your tour. The exhibits and film is fantastic. And a small down town to grab a snack, with a McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. And plenty of branded sovereigns in the huge gift shop. 

A special thank you to my driver and life long buddy Andrew.....

[iamanoriginal]

Post-It

Pairing: Lafayette x Reader

Word Count: 1465

Warnings: Language

Summary: Teaching AU, Laf teaches French, Reader teaches art. Established relationship, prank war ensues.

A/N: Second fic! If you enjoy, please consider liking and rebloging. Constructive criticism is welcome! Hopefully something new will be up tomorrow. Once again, requests are open! I take all requests, my only restriction is that I only do x reader fics. Anything other than that is fair game. Enjoy!

Lunch was probably the best part of the day. While you loved kids, you usually needed a break by the time lunch came. Your 8th graders agreed with you. As soon as the bell rang, they were rushing out into the hallway. You waited a few minutes before leaving the art room, heading out into the elective hallway, towards the lounge. You passed by the Home Ec. room, a warm smell drifting out. You stepped in the doorway.

Your coworker, Hercules Mulligan, stood there. Apron on, he was showing his 7th graders how to make pies for their labs tomorrow. He glanced up at you and grinned. “Hello, Ms. L/N. Could you do me a favor and give this to Mr. Jefferson? It’s for his class,” he questioned, pulling a colonial uniform from behind his desk. You nodded.

“Sure thing. Smells great in here.” You took the uniform from him. You went back on your way, quickly arriving at the lounge.

Your fellow 8th grade teachers milled about. Eliza and Alex, the English and Science teachers respectively, were in a corner, eating lunch together. The newly-wed couple were still in their honeymoon phase, and it was extremely adorable. John and Thomas, the Math and History teachers, sat together, discussing lesson plans. You set the uniform down in front of them. Thomas quickly thanked you and returned to his conversation.

You turned around, headed towards the fridge. Angelica, the choir teacher, stood there. She was hanging up a sheet.

“Hey Y/N! I have the club sponsor sign up sheet. Take your pick. You can sign up for two if you want,” she spoke before walking away to sit with Peggy, the choir student teacher. You scanned over the club sheet, deciding to just pick one out later. You opened the fridge, reaching in for your lunch. You grabbed your sandwich, but there was something you couldn’t find. Your cupcake.

Your boyfriend, Laf, who happened to teach French I, had taken you out to dinner the night before. You had gotten cupcakes on the way home, and you had opted to take yours for lunch. And you knew exactly who had taken it.

You stormed out of the teachers’ lounge, headed straight for the language corner. It was the corner where the 7th and 8th grade hallways converged, and it happened to be where all 3 foreign language classes were held. You knocked harshly on the door. Laf didn’t teach 7th grade, so he had the same lunch as you. Something along the lines of ‘come in’ was heard.

Fuming, you opened the door. Laf sat at his desk, smiling at you innocently. “Salut, mon amour. Quoi de neuf?” He grinned at you.

“You know exactly what’s up. Where is it?”

“Aw, mon ami. You will have to be more specific. Where is what?” He was trying so hard not to snicker; you could see it in his face.

“My cupcake.”

“You mean.. This?” he asked, reaching under his desk, pulling up a cupcake wrapper.

You sighed half-heartedly, rolling your eyes. “Yes. That.”

“Oops. I ate it, mon amour. How about you come over here and I give you a taste of what’s left?” he asked, winking at you.

“Tempting, but no. I have to go eat what’s left of my lunch. We have like 15 minutes until break’s over,” you replied, stifling your laughter as you flipped Laf off before leaving the room to finish your lunch in the lounge.

“Alright, class. Today, you will continue working on your self-portraits. I’ll walk around, let me know if you need help,” you spoke out loud to the class. You began walking around the room, stopping and talking to each individual kid about their piece. It was your format, you wanted to give each kid your undivided attention at least once a day.  Eventually, you arrived at a table in the back.

“For real? A 100? You’re joking. I got a 63. I think Lafayette’s out to get me. That, or I’m just shit at fren- oh.. Hey, Ms. L/N.. You totally didn’t hear that, did you?” One of your students spoke before looking up at you, half-smiling.

You grinned at the kid, an idea popping in your head. Laf was very adamant when it came to his supplies turning up missing. “I’m a bit mad at Laf at the moment, so I’ll let it go if you do me a favor. Take his Post-It Notes.” You grabbed a Post-It Note from your desk, scribbling a message along the lines of ‘fuck you’ and returned it to the kid. “Leave this in its place.”

The kid nodded, promising he would do it next period when he had French.

Little did you know, you had no idea what you were getting yourself into.

When you walked into your room the next morning, you were expecting to set your stuff down and prep lesson plans for the day, but that is not in fact what happened. Your entire room was covered in toilet paper from head to toe. It was wrapped around your desk, on the cabinets, it was even hanging from the rafters. You walked through the mess, dropping your bag down by your desk. You had a planning period 1st period, so you would spend that time cleaning up. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a bright Post-It Note stuck to your chair. You grab it, quickly reading it.

You really thought I wouldn’t know it was you who took my Post-It Notes? I asked Mulligan to do this for me after we left yesterday. Thank him. I expect new Post-It Notes soon. See you at lunch, mon amour. - Laf

You sighed, wanting to be angry, but you could feel the blood rushing to your cheeks. The bell rang, and seconds later, your student aide came walking through the door.

“Good morning Ms. L/N, what do you want- whoa. What happened here?” She asked, eyes widening as she saw the mess.

“Mr. Lafayette happened. I think I have an idea, however, but help me clean this up first.”

Laf returned from the lounge after his lunch break, he had a break in grading papers so he decided to come eat with you in the lounge. He had picked you up from your room and dropped you off, so he was not expecting for you to have done anything.

He gasped as he entered the room. You had gotten him his Post-It Notes. Not in the way he had expected.

Everything was labeled by Post-It Notes. His desk, the whiteboard, each book on his shelf, each pen in his cup. Each desk, each chair, all 4 walls. He turned around ready to storm your room and confront you. A single Post-It Note stuck to the door.

I hope this number of post it notes was satisfactory. Let me know if you need anything else! See you after work. - Y/N

This continued for the rest of the week, a new prank each day, each signed with Post-It. Both the rest of the staff and most of your students had picked up on it as well. Even Mr. Washington, the principal, had joked about it during a staff meeting. Your personal favorite was when students had volunteered to throw water balloons at Laf, and he had arrived home soaked to the bone.

It was Friday, which meant it was the first club day. You had chosen to sponsor dodgeball club. After 7th period, you quickly changed into something a little more athletic before heading to the small gym. As you walked in, you were bombarded by dodgeballs. You caught one in your hand. It had a Post-It Note on it.

Truce? I’d rather not have paint dumped on me. - Laf

You looked up to see a group of about 15 kids, all standing in front of Laf.

“Very good, class. That was the first tactic, surprise. Now, let’s divide into teams and play a match!” he yelled out, grinning at you. The kids began to divide themselves up as Laf walked over to you.

“Surprise, mon amour. I’m the other sponsor. Do we have a truce?”

You grinned. “Sure.”

“I have a present for you when we get home. I got some more of those cupcakes.”

You glanced up at him, smiling. “Did you now? Are you going to eat them all yourself?”

He grinned at you. “No, I might need some help from you,” he quipped before pulling you into a sweet kiss.

You stayed there for a few good seconds before you remembered you had students. You quickly pulled away, turning towards the kids, who were all staring at you. You clapped your hands together.

“Alright! Let’s play!”

[perdudanslesbenedictions]

What just happened?

Yesterday morning I got some upsetting news... I lost my long term substitute teaching job. I will admit, I am not highly qualified as I am a French major who was teaching Spanish. That is besides the point. The job was challenging and stressful, but I feel the need to be somewhat involved in education. It is so important to me, a person who struggled in school, to give back to the next generation.

Part of that message is all “kumbaya my lord” and part of it is teaching children to be decent human beings... This includes disciplinary action. It all started maybe less than two months ago when I took a substitute teaching job at my little brothers school. A ‘Christian’ school. The position was underpaid, but I took it to help out. The school was desperate to hire an Anglo/Francophone- American  to teach Spanish. I figured they would find someone more qualified quickly... But of course not. My first day I worked with 8th graders who were awesome! I miss them already. I could always count on them to help me through the lessons and keep me on point as much as I kept them on point. 7th grade was a different story. They loved to piss me off and act like toddlers for 40 minutes. Getting them to come to class on time was impossible and the talking never ended. They deliberately disrespected me. Most of them lacked the ability to even think they were doing anything wrong having a full fledged conversation at a normal volume while I was teaching. There was no effort to even whisper or hide it. During daily work, this can be some-what  expected. These are 7th grade students with a lot of drama and personality and I get it. However, when it came time for the first exam... This would not be tolerated. It is a very personal issue for me, as even in my adult life, I have struggled with fair testing environments. Two years ago while I was taking a language exam for my company I failed, in part due to my lack of oral comprehension, but also due to not having a fair testing environment with people sitting right next to me speaking another language, while I was taking my exam. In school I needed extra time on tests and had to study twice as much to barely succeed on exams due to some, at a time, horrendous disabilities, like anxiety, depression, and some other stuff I don’t know the name of.

So back to 7th exam day...

It was time for our first exam. I made it clear that “talking during the exam=Cheating=Failing the exam”. Some students with pure intentions tried to clarify directions with one another. I politely explained that even though I knew they were not cheating, it could be misunderstood. Their was another group of students who again, not only talked during the exam, but had a full fledged exam while students were sitting with their exams still sitting in front of them. As any teacher should, I failed them on their exams. They not only violated academic honesty, they created a horrendous testing environment. Another boy even went as far as to back his chair into another student. I was finished with the behavior of these despicable children and their fantastic ability to distract the students who wanted to learn and do well. It is also clearly unfair that these students were able to have a conversation and possibly exchange test answers with one another. I held these students after class and sent a note home with them to be signed by their parents. The note basically said that their student had facilitated cheating on an exam and created a distracting environment for others. I was to give 50% of their original score if the parents were to sign the note and return it to me. I made sure that this was okay by my supervisor. I even, without knowing, followed the school’s procedures for Academic honesty. Of course in the days of entitlement (from students and their parents) and zero discipline, there was some serious backlash. Parents called the school, some wanting more explanation... Others to try and negotiate the bad grade their student would receive. Surprisingly, the principal took their side stating that “students should not be punished with their grades”. The assistant principal took my side and said that he had been trying to catch one of the students cheating for some time. We both thought that maybe our boss just needed further explanation. So I sent emails with further explanation to my boss and parents. Then I taught one more day and little did I know this would be my last.

I had a relaxing almost week off and had a fantastic thanksgiving with all the grading and work that was to be done to ensure the success of these students at the back of my mind. Literally the whole break I had some anxiety about getting ahead with grading and lesson plans. Finally after working the entire weekend waiting tables at my other job, I gained the motivation to grade a ton of papers and the horrendous 7th grade exams. Most students did okay, and as usual I gave lovely bonus questions which saved a lot of grades. The bonus questions were not only a beacon of hope for them, but for me. It was a chance to see if the kids were really learning anything from me. Some of them were! It was amazing to see the resilience of these students who were on their 3rd Spanish teacher. It was a night of reflection and planing. I stayed up until about 3 writing the 8th grade exam. I even came up with ideas for the final projects and what review they needed to come out of this whole mess with a basic knowledge of Spanish by the end of the year. I went to bed with a new air of confidence.

At 8:20am I got a horrifying phone call from my mother, who runs the before and after school program. Her first words to me “okay, brace yourself!” Some parents apparently went on a witch hunt for my Facebook. Obviously it was one of the students who cheated on their exam. They found my Facebook, which does not even have my real name on it, and looked for anything and everything to throw me under the bus. What did they find? Open discussion about homosexuality, a few F bombs, and my messenger username... YoungDum&fullof... I never stated what I was full of! It could be bravery, love, blood, shit, or yes CUM. These people have no appreciation for the fine art of Haiku poetry... It doesn’t have to rhyme! Anyhow, besides bad poetry... Yeah they basically fired me because I have public homosexuality online... On a profile that doesn’t have my real name on it. Ridiculous!

Does it upset me that the school fired me because of my sexual preferences? Yeah, a little. But let’s be real here. Am I the perversion or is it their maleficent children who cheated on their exams? A parent made a career threatening move against me because they couldn’t bare to believe that their little ‘angel’ cheated on their fucking exam, that is more evil than any homosexual act I can think of. Am I the perversion or is this school who’s principal personally stood by discrimination and more importantly academic dishonesty? But okay, yeah, blame it on my Facebook. What ever makes it easier for these fucked up people to sleep at night.

So what have I learned? This is the ‘Christian’ religion. A belief system that supports judgement and dishonesty. I am never stepping foot in a Church ever again. I am an abomination to them. This event represents the masses of fundamentalist ‘Christians’, who protest funerals, refuse service in their establishments, and fail to read their own book called “The Bible”. I am done with the hatred and ignorance. I have right wing republican friends who I have accepted for so long, who do not approve of LGBTQ rights, that uphold conservative beliefs... The truth is. I no longer have any tolerance for people who have no tolerance. I am who I am. I like what I like. If you dislike or disagree... It’s so simple, SOD OFF! They think their behavior is justified by their fucking religion and it’s not okay. How can society be so backwards that this is okay? I am not going to fight for my rights in this God forsaken place when there exist places that will accept me for who I am.