I walk with disaster, prefer to be plastered

Apathy Jack writes:

Student 1 "I don't fucking understand this shitty work."
Student 2 "Why do you have to add swear words into every sentence you say?"
Me "I'm pretty sure it's because she's got Tourette's Syndrome to go along with her Munchausen's Syndrome."
Student 1 "I've told you: Stop diagnosing me with things that I don't know what they are!"

So, let's have a quick scan of the "negatives" column for today, shall we?

The assault just outside the school gates by an enraged parent would probably count; My ex-student twisting on the end of some manner of clerical error that is jepordising her entry into tertiary study; Having to walk a student out of school because she was not physically safe come the end of the day; Oh, and the fact that I had to have the following conversation about the miscarriage of one of my seventeen year olds:

"I'm sad about that."
"I'm not."
"Well, yeah, I'm happy you're not pregnant, but I'm sad that you got pregnant, and I'm sad it ended up the way it did."

...

"Positives" column:

A long and in-depth discussion with a student about his dreams of becoming a published author. Who knows if there is a chance, but the English teacher in me like this ambition; The fact that I palmed Cruddy off onto my new goth; I was talking to one of the other teachers about one of the students she looks after (I'm not the only one who has projects) - outlining my plan to shoehorn him into some extra credits. "Thank goodness you're his English teacher," she said. Truth be told, ever since we got a couple of good ones last year, my reputation as the only one who gives a damn, and/or being the local miracle worker is no longer entirely deserved. Still, it lingers, and I'm not complaining; The latest timetable culling went well - I've shed just enough that I no longer have any sitting on the floor, but I've kept the list of damaged students I've decided to work with this year - most of them, anyway; The fact that the above, when all piled on top of each other in one day, meant that I only had twenty minutes of free time to plan two full lessons: the printers and photocopiers were all broken again, so I had no access to the resources I had planned on using.

I sat at my desk, jotted down three lines of notes to jog my memory come the periods, and had eighteen minutes to relax and unwind.

I love that I've been doing this long enough to do that.



Hey, that's more in the positive column than in the negative.

Good day.


"Hello sir, I've come to visit."
"Dammit! You still have a tresspass order out on you! You could be arrested if anyone catches you!"
"Well they won't catch me if you stop yelling so loud about me being here..."