Silent Stares

So today was my first day of teaching all three classes, gr. 9, 10 and 12. After spending like 10 hours yesterday planning, going into school extra early to photocopy (I killed the equivalent one of these giant tall trees up here in the process, I swear). So I was all excited and ready, and the grade 10's (my first class) slowly start to trickle in. I greet each one of them as they come in the door and not one of them responds.

So I finally get them all inside and start asking them questions and....no response. I ask them to write in their journals and they sit and stare at me. I give them candy, they take it, eat it, never say thanks and STILL sit and stare at me. I fully felt like pulling a To Sir with Love on them and throwing their books out the window. However, I think the curriculum police (aka the people who come and make sure we are teaching according to guidelines) might not like that.

The grade 9 and 12 classes in the afternoon did much the same thing. The grade 12's showed a bit of promise (in that they at least filled out the worksheets I gave them). Now i am completely exhausted from trying to amp up a bunch of unresponsive teenagers all day and I have a staff meeting at 8am and one at 3:30pm and I haven't eaten dinner or planned for tomorrow. So yeah...teaching is SOOO FUN! lol. I suppose I just need to get into a rhythm and accept the fact that these kids will not respond how i want them to and move on.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a much more fun blog :)