Back to school tomorrow. No break until Halloween. (The district got smart this year, and scheduled what used to be called an in-service day. I think now they’re called Staff Development. (Sounds like a SPAM header.) Before we go back to work, I just hafta tell this story (again). It must have been about six or seven years ago. I had a 4th period that I loved, but they were sometimes a bit jabbery; like they thought we were around the dinner table every day, and they could just speak their minds whenever they felt it necessary. One day, I was getting a little more shushy than I like to be, and by the time I got them quiet enough to get something done, they felt that I had been “mean” to them. This was a very sensitive bunch. So the next day, they decide that, since I was mean to them, they would give me the silent treatment for a period. Sort of, “if you want us to be quiet so badly, we will…” So K, one of my fave students of all time, and several others stopped everyone on the way in and recruited the entire class into
Middle school teaching: Five shows a day, 180 days a year.
That reminds me of those great SNL skits about the Sofa King. You know, how the prices are "Sofa King" low, the deals are "Sofa King" great, etc. (You obviously have to say those phrases out loud to get the joke.)