I'm on day two of my first week completely solo will all five classes. Yesterday wasn't so bad, though. Due to a small error in timing, I'm finishing up some of my CT's units rather than starting my own mini-units with the classes. Right now, I'm finishing Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns with the World Lit class, finishing Hamlet with the morning section of British Lit, starting "North by Northwest" with the Film Studies group, introducing alphabet books to the Children's Lit students, and ending my unit on Much Ado About Nothing with my section of British Lit.
I'm finding that the two classes which are the hardest to teach are World Lit and Film Studies. The World Lit class, I think, may be too "advanced" in maturity for some of these students, particularly the boys. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an incredibly well-written book, but it also deals with very serious issues like spousal abuse, war, and religious rights. The girls all seem to get that these are serious things--perhaps because in the book, it is the female characters who bear the brunt of the abuse and heartache which is perpetrated by the male characters and a male-dominated society. The boys in this class, though, don't seem to get it. Sure, a few do, but there is a group of boys (athletes, specifically) who manage to crack jokes and laugh during class. I've yet to figure out what's funny about women being forced to stay at home and be servants to their abusive husbands.
The Film Studies class is hard for a different reason. This class is full of students who just seem to not care about school--they see Film as an "easy A" their senior year. They goof off on their work, they talk and joke incessantly--even during tests! Several students refuse to give up their cell phones during tests, to the point where they lie and say "I don't have one." Well, they definitely have one when I end up taking it five minutes later because I caught them using it to text their friends during the test. One student is so attached to his phone that he will actually argue with you about why he is special and shouldn't have to give it up. I remember a time when I actually got him to give up the phone (with my CT's help) and he unplugged his headphones, turned the phone off, carefully closed all the flaps on his ultra-heavy-duty Otterbox and told us that if there was "one scratch" on the phone, he would make his parents sue (can you say "spoiled brat"?). Then, he proceeded to throw the phone into the box! After going on and on about how he didn't want it broken and we should take care of it, he goes and throws it rather than placing it gently.
Then, also in Film, there's a pair of boys who will not shut up. I swear, I could give them a test and tell them to take it, but if they were the only two in the room, they'd take a zero on it because they wouldn't get any work done. One of them can't make up his mind on what his name is and comes in with a different one every day--and he won't answer to anything but is nom du jour. He also thinks he's some kind of hot-shot like a cross between Jonah Hill and that kid that plays McLovin'. Except he doesn't realize that he's just obnoxious.
I suppose I'll have to get used to students like them because with the way kids are being raised now, I don't think that mentality is going to change. There's just no respect any more. There's no sense of where the line is between being funny and being absolutely annoying. I think that part of the problem is also that they know I'm an intern, not a fully-paid and licensed teacher so they push the boundaries and think they can get away with all sorts of things they wouldn't be able to get away with if my CT was teaching. So far, they think they've gotten away with it. But I get revenge in the worst way: I assign essays.
