I have been thinking recently that I should write down some of the funny things that I remember about teaching Junior High, so I thought I would share them with everybody else. For those of you who don't know, I was at Oak Canyon my first year, and then I was at Lakeridge for two years. I will try not to use names. Here it goes...
1. The funniest moment ever was my first year at Lakeridge when a student, who had a tendency to talk way too much, was sitting in the back of the room at a table and chair because he had been talking too much at his desk during class. He had taken tape and taped his mouth shut to keep himself from talking. He was leaning back in his chair, when he leaned back a little too far. He realized that he was falling so he flailed his arms and tried to yell, but he had his mouth taped shut! He fell over and the only thing we heard was the big boom when he hit the floor!
2. My second year at Lakeridge, another student who talked too much was having troubles staying quiet during a test. He was sitting under the table next to me because he thought that would keep him quiet, but he kept talking to me. So, I made him stare at a neon orange piece of paper for 5 minutes without looking away, knowing that when he did look away, everything would appear purple. I have never seen a 9th grader so excited or entertained by anything in my life. He kept using all of my different colors of neon paper to see what color that would make everything appear to be!
This same student had constant issues staying quiet. It was a fight the whole year. I always had him sit right next to me so I could keep an eye on him. He really disliked this, so one time he promised that he would be quiet if I put him in the back of the room. He was in a smaller class (32 or so students) so there were extra seats. I changed the seating chart and had him in the very back of the room, with nobody else around at all! He was so excited to be sitting in the back of the room, it was 10 or 15 minutes before he realized that nobody else was assigned a seat around him!
3. For some reason, a lot of the girls trusted me and told me who they liked (or their friends told me who they liked when I asked, because I liked to pry). My favorite thing to do was to take a shy girl who liked a guy and arrange the seating chart so that they would be sitting next to each other and would be end up being partners when I scooted the desks together.
The first time was at Oak Canyon when a girl, who was my TA, told me that she liked a guy in her class. She told me not to put her next to him though, but to but her next to her best friend, and have him near her. Well, I always make my seating chart boy-girl, so she couldn't be next to her best friend. I put the guy she liked in between her and her best friend so whenever she wanted to talk to her best friend, she had to talk over him! She was much quieter in class after that! (although this girl wasn't a problem like the first two)
The second time was my first year at Lakeridge at track practice. We were discussing who all of the girls had crushes on, and I discovered that one of my students (lets call her Zel) had a crush on a boy in her class. She was really embarrassed and her friend had to tell me who it was when Zel wasn't around. When Zel found out that I knew, she begged me to not change it so they next to each other. I had conveniently made new seating assignments that they were getting the next day. When I looked at the seating chart, I discovered that they were already next to each other! I was able to grant her request and not change it, but still have them sit next to each other!
4. The friend mentioned in the story above had her own relationship woes. I never had her as a student in class, only in track. Her 9th grade year (my second year at Lakeridge), she had a crush on a boy that I did not know, but she asked me to tell her math teacher to put their seats next to each other. However, shortly after that, she changed her mind about who she had a crush on to another boy on the track team. She was very shy and never talked to him despite opportunities that her friends and I set up. Finally, at Alpine Days (the last track meet of the year), she and him were walking back from the bus together, talking. I had my camera handy so I started snapping pictures, and when they went different directions, I went to show her the pictures I took, and all of her friends brought their cameras and phones full of pictures too!
5. Calling home was always a struggle for me because I was so young and it just made me feel uncomfortable. However, I discovered with students 1 and 2 that their parents would ground them if I called home and told them that their student weren’t doing their homework. That really helped me to have confidence to call home! I loved it when they would come up to me and say, “I’m grounded because of you!”
With student 2, I started having him call him parents during class so then I wouldn’t forget to call (which happened a lot as well). One time, he called his own cell phone and left a message there, and I didn’t know. I got an anonymous tip left on my desk that he had called his cell phone (there are honest junior high kids), so I called his parents, “just to make sure that they got the message.” He got in trouble for not doing his homework AND not calling home! Unfortunately, no matter what I did or how long he was grounded, he probably did no more than 10 homework assignments the whole year.
6. Apology notes. I am not sure when it happened, but sometime at Lakeridge I started making kids write apology notes when they insulted something or somebody, and I hung them on the wall. We had an entire wall of apology notes at one point. It helped them keep a positive attitude about math (or at least it helped them laugh during math class when somebody else had to write one.) There were lots of Dear Calculator, Dear Zero, Dear fractions, etc. and they were all signed with Love. My favorite one however was Dear Utes. That note the entire class helped the offender write. In it we included that he was going to give them his entire allowance until he turned 18, and that he was going to wear red every day. This student was deeply concerned about writing this note. It was absolute torture for him, which made it even better for me! After he was done, I framed it on bright red paper and hung it on the wall with the other notes.
Along the same note, I had a “Thou shalt not whine” sign that I found at Savers for $1.00 that hung in my classroom. Occasionally, if a student was being particularly whiney, I would set the plaque on their desk for them to stare at. It wasn’t as good as the apology notes, but it did work to quiet them down (sometimes).
I miss interacting with the students. As you can tell from the stories above, I wasn’t always just their teacher, I was sometimes their friend. I miss that. However, even those girls who trusted me so much with their life secrets, ignore me when they see me in public! All my students ignore me when they see me in public, and act really awkward when I say hello to them (even the one that I am related to). I find it hilarious!
I always found ways to have fun in the classroom (you have to do something to keep your sanity when hanging out with 13 and 14 year olds all day.) Sometimes it actually came from the material, but most of the time I had fun just playing off the quirkiness of junior high kids. While some people may think that subjecting yourself to being with them all day may be self-induced torture (my principal at Oak Canyon actually said that was what I was doing while I was student teaching before I started getting paid), I found that it can actually be a lot of fun, a lot of work, and always unpredictable!
I’m glad I get to be home and take care of my baby boy, but I enjoyed the time I got to spend teaching junior high.
1. The funniest moment ever was my first year at Lakeridge when a student, who had a tendency to talk way too much, was sitting in the back of the room at a table and chair because he had been talking too much at his desk during class. He had taken tape and taped his mouth shut to keep himself from talking. He was leaning back in his chair, when he leaned back a little too far. He realized that he was falling so he flailed his arms and tried to yell, but he had his mouth taped shut! He fell over and the only thing we heard was the big boom when he hit the floor!
2. My second year at Lakeridge, another student who talked too much was having troubles staying quiet during a test. He was sitting under the table next to me because he thought that would keep him quiet, but he kept talking to me. So, I made him stare at a neon orange piece of paper for 5 minutes without looking away, knowing that when he did look away, everything would appear purple. I have never seen a 9th grader so excited or entertained by anything in my life. He kept using all of my different colors of neon paper to see what color that would make everything appear to be!
This same student had constant issues staying quiet. It was a fight the whole year. I always had him sit right next to me so I could keep an eye on him. He really disliked this, so one time he promised that he would be quiet if I put him in the back of the room. He was in a smaller class (32 or so students) so there were extra seats. I changed the seating chart and had him in the very back of the room, with nobody else around at all! He was so excited to be sitting in the back of the room, it was 10 or 15 minutes before he realized that nobody else was assigned a seat around him!
3. For some reason, a lot of the girls trusted me and told me who they liked (or their friends told me who they liked when I asked, because I liked to pry). My favorite thing to do was to take a shy girl who liked a guy and arrange the seating chart so that they would be sitting next to each other and would be end up being partners when I scooted the desks together.
The first time was at Oak Canyon when a girl, who was my TA, told me that she liked a guy in her class. She told me not to put her next to him though, but to but her next to her best friend, and have him near her. Well, I always make my seating chart boy-girl, so she couldn't be next to her best friend. I put the guy she liked in between her and her best friend so whenever she wanted to talk to her best friend, she had to talk over him! She was much quieter in class after that! (although this girl wasn't a problem like the first two)
The second time was my first year at Lakeridge at track practice. We were discussing who all of the girls had crushes on, and I discovered that one of my students (lets call her Zel) had a crush on a boy in her class. She was really embarrassed and her friend had to tell me who it was when Zel wasn't around. When Zel found out that I knew, she begged me to not change it so they next to each other. I had conveniently made new seating assignments that they were getting the next day. When I looked at the seating chart, I discovered that they were already next to each other! I was able to grant her request and not change it, but still have them sit next to each other!
4. The friend mentioned in the story above had her own relationship woes. I never had her as a student in class, only in track. Her 9th grade year (my second year at Lakeridge), she had a crush on a boy that I did not know, but she asked me to tell her math teacher to put their seats next to each other. However, shortly after that, she changed her mind about who she had a crush on to another boy on the track team. She was very shy and never talked to him despite opportunities that her friends and I set up. Finally, at Alpine Days (the last track meet of the year), she and him were walking back from the bus together, talking. I had my camera handy so I started snapping pictures, and when they went different directions, I went to show her the pictures I took, and all of her friends brought their cameras and phones full of pictures too!
5. Calling home was always a struggle for me because I was so young and it just made me feel uncomfortable. However, I discovered with students 1 and 2 that their parents would ground them if I called home and told them that their student weren’t doing their homework. That really helped me to have confidence to call home! I loved it when they would come up to me and say, “I’m grounded because of you!”
With student 2, I started having him call him parents during class so then I wouldn’t forget to call (which happened a lot as well). One time, he called his own cell phone and left a message there, and I didn’t know. I got an anonymous tip left on my desk that he had called his cell phone (there are honest junior high kids), so I called his parents, “just to make sure that they got the message.” He got in trouble for not doing his homework AND not calling home! Unfortunately, no matter what I did or how long he was grounded, he probably did no more than 10 homework assignments the whole year.
6. Apology notes. I am not sure when it happened, but sometime at Lakeridge I started making kids write apology notes when they insulted something or somebody, and I hung them on the wall. We had an entire wall of apology notes at one point. It helped them keep a positive attitude about math (or at least it helped them laugh during math class when somebody else had to write one.) There were lots of Dear Calculator, Dear Zero, Dear fractions, etc. and they were all signed with Love. My favorite one however was Dear Utes. That note the entire class helped the offender write. In it we included that he was going to give them his entire allowance until he turned 18, and that he was going to wear red every day. This student was deeply concerned about writing this note. It was absolute torture for him, which made it even better for me! After he was done, I framed it on bright red paper and hung it on the wall with the other notes.
Along the same note, I had a “Thou shalt not whine” sign that I found at Savers for $1.00 that hung in my classroom. Occasionally, if a student was being particularly whiney, I would set the plaque on their desk for them to stare at. It wasn’t as good as the apology notes, but it did work to quiet them down (sometimes).
I miss interacting with the students. As you can tell from the stories above, I wasn’t always just their teacher, I was sometimes their friend. I miss that. However, even those girls who trusted me so much with their life secrets, ignore me when they see me in public! All my students ignore me when they see me in public, and act really awkward when I say hello to them (even the one that I am related to). I find it hilarious!
I always found ways to have fun in the classroom (you have to do something to keep your sanity when hanging out with 13 and 14 year olds all day.) Sometimes it actually came from the material, but most of the time I had fun just playing off the quirkiness of junior high kids. While some people may think that subjecting yourself to being with them all day may be self-induced torture (my principal at Oak Canyon actually said that was what I was doing while I was student teaching before I started getting paid), I found that it can actually be a lot of fun, a lot of work, and always unpredictable!
I’m glad I get to be home and take care of my baby boy, but I enjoyed the time I got to spend teaching junior high.
Very entertaining thoughts. I love the apology notes idea!!!
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