Sit DOWN Horseshack

SO.... typically in the week before school I opt to help ( get paid ) with the "book line". As in, all of the students file in one by one and hand you thier schedule and then you run around the stacks finding Algebra 2 by Houghton-Mifflin and a Writer's Inc. workbook. I generally like it because it is A) a drastic wake up call that school starts in less than a week. B) it gets me into the actual SCHOOL which by this point every summer I have completely avoided C) I begin to reacquaint myself with some of the personalities at work.
The personalites one might find are more diverse than one might typically venture to guess. There are cops, maintenance, cafeteria, teaching staff ( which, in a high school, general personality characteristics are defined by subject like Math, or English, unless you are a coach, which supersedes all and defines you as just that.. a coach ), suppport staff, social workers, admin., etc.
It's all very exciting for about two, three minutes, when the smiles and jokes are ripe, and then baselines back to hum drum. At best. But yet also comfortable and familiar in a good way.
My classroom was pretty predictable. I mean, on the last day of school last Spring I was informed that since summer school would be taking place in my classroom I would need to secure my belongings. Meaning: Me, shoving every ounce of ten years of teaching crap into a small back closet in a hustled mess and without any thought more intellectual other than I can't wait to get OUT of here. And while I dreaded my former actions when I walked into my basement-with-flourescent-lights-classroom, it was kind of a good thing in the end because I actually am going though it all organizing it. Annoying, but at least productive and results-oriented.
Most surprising to me was my student interactions. I heard myself talk a few times and wondered when I had gotten so impatient. I mean did I really need to bark at the kid for going through the book line with a hicky on his neck? Did I need to retort to the kid who obviously had failed English for so many years in a row ( due to his mile high stack of Enligh books ) that he might want to try doing his English homework this year? And lastly, could I not have at least feigned interest when the girl told me about her summer? I just brushed her off and was like.. great! with that faux-smile that is so irriating to receive.
Maybe I am PMS'ing. But most likely I am thinking ahead to the long year in which I am sucked dry emotionally every day by stupid student crap. You know.. like seriously, it's the third quarter and you don't even have a pencil yet? You are EIGHTEEN! Or, NO! It's not the janitor's job to pick up your lunch trash! And I don't mind getting sucked dry when it's an isloated incident. I mean, Sally can't help her parent's fought last night and didn't even think to sign her permission slip. But I am sort of sick of that crap that most high school teachers are faced with now... Higher expecations, longer hours, better scores, and with a population that is so self-absorbed and blameless and eager to self-satisfy. Like I don't have to justify to you DAILY whey you cannot text DURING the TEST!
And it's not the average kid that is like that, but it just seems that more and more we are forced to focus on the kids who are "slipping" ( i.e., crap parenting and no money and no respect for themselves or otherwise ) . And perhaps it's time to face the fact that while some kids can be saved from themselves, others cannot.
I think my goal for this year will be to focus on student achievement. No matter how small. It's time that the average and superior students get some attention as well.