Grade 10- THE Grade 10's...

All this talk about teaching in this High School got me feeling really nervous today and I was on the verge of being sick this morning because of it. The teacher I am subbing for (I'm on my "spare" right now)was here this morning and let me know about what was going to be going on in the next couple days. She said today was going to be a breeze- that the 10, 11 and 12's she has on Thursday's are all really good kids and I am finding this to be very true- I am having a great day so far. THEN she warned me about tomorrow. I am going to have the same grade 11 and 12's, but there will be the grade 10 class. THE grade 10 class that has terrorized every teacher they have had to deal with. I was told that these kids are "mean spirited" and that they "chew subs up and spit them out with no remorse." The reason why this teacher is out today and tomorrow is because the teachers are getting together to come up with new strategies they can use with this class- this one class has caused a band of teachers to have to take time to learn how to deal and teach them. This is terrifying. I am afraid that I will not have the courage to come back tomorrow. I mean, I have been warned about kids before, but I have never had a teacher tell me- kick out as many kids as you need to, they WILL be bad, they can't stay still, they are all coded with some learning disability or behaviour issue, etc. Oh dear.

Since this is my first time in a High School in a very long time, I have noticed some things...

~Boobs are getting bigger and hanging out even more. Whoa cleavage city.
~These kids have more expensive clothes than I do.
~High School relationships are funny to watch now that I'm a teacher.
~Kids seem to swear more...
~Ipods and cell phones have replaced books and one-on-one conversation.
~Some kids are actually excited about the future and to learn.

So, while I am waiting for Judgement Day, as I like to call it, I'm going to focus on the good things about today. This morning I taught a lesson on poetry and went through "The Swimmer's Moment" with them. They haven't done a lot of poetry and were quite nervous about the assignment, but I assured them that I used to be horrible poetry- I hated it, but when you learn to understand and appreciate it, you hang onto every word. After reading the poem, I walked around and peeked at a few assignments and the kids were getting it- they were totally into it!

Tonight I have to think about what I can do to attempt to manage these 10's tomorrow. Wish me luck!