I'm over school. Over it. Over my students, over fixing a lunch for me every day, over having 20 minutes to eat it, over getting up at 4:45 every morning, over wearing "work" clothes (that don't fit, by the way--either too big or too small)...just over it. OVER it.
Nothing can make you have these feelings like doing research papers with your students. Seriously. It's like starting from scratch every single time. "What are quotation marks?" "What are parenthetical citations?" "What is a Works Cited page?" "Why do I have to have three sources?" "Why are you making us do this? Are you mad at us?" (Yes, I'm doing this because I'm mad at you and I want to grade 80+ bad research papers.) Either a) students are not writing research papers for their previous classes, or b) they didn't pay attention when they did write them. I think either is quite plausible. Sometimes I think Tim and I are the only ones teaching any kind of writing at all. (Usually I'm too chicken to write something like that because even though none of my colleagues know about this blog except Kim and Tim, I have this fear that someone will just "stumble" upon it. I don't care. I'm calling people out...the 9th and 10th grade teachers teach NO writing.) I digress.
It's just that time of year, that seemingly endless stretch between the random January/February holidays we get and Spring Break. It's going to be a long March, people.
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AMEN! Our frustration is that kids don't won't to THINK. Even the honors group. What's really sad is that I have some very learning challenged students (various disabilities) that truly want to learn. (My kids are all mainstreamed into my co-taught classes.) They try so hard, but still just can't grasp the concepts. One of my girls cried with joy when she finally got a 70! Then you have these really bright kids, but the pull to a shadier, thug life is VERY strong. I wish they could see the possibilities in life & where hard work could lead, & how good it feels to accomplish or conquer something difficult.
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