I'll never need a job...

A student told me that today and she was dead serious. She is new to our school this year, has had off and on teachers throughout her high school career and has some strong beliefs about what appropriate behavior looks like. Today, she thought it was okay to answer her phone in class, sleep throughout English and do no work. When prompted as to what would happen in the real world, she said I don't care, I will never need a job. My sister is going to support me my entire life so I am just fine.

Along that same line, I have 5 new students from another school and throughout the first 4 weeks of school, they have said some things to me that cause me to believe that they have had teachers with extremely low academic expectations for them. Here are just a few:

1. "Ms. S...you aren't cool. You don't let us just talk through class about anything we want. Why can't you be cool?"

"Well, I don't want to be cool. I don't care about being cool as your teacher. I care about teaching you and teaching you well."

"Thats stupid. Just be cool."

2. "Man, Ms. S this school is all about tests. In my last 3 years I can't remember taking a single test in a class."

3. "This is Bul-***T. I can't believe you guys care about whether we are on time to class or not."

Amazing to me. We are just having some growing pains together as we adjust to new expectations, high academic standards and behavioral standards. We'll get there....

Post graduation

I received this from one of the student's I had last year. She graduated and is enrolled at a local community college...made my week :)

I want to thank you for teaching me all that you did. I am glad that i learned what you taught me because in my basic math class alot of what you taught me comes up in my class. I feel so proud to have had a great teacher who taught me things that i will need for the rest of my life. I am glad that i tried my best and that you never gave up on me. You taught me how to adovcate for myself while the past SDC teachers didnt do that. I wish that i can go back in time and have you for two years instead of one. I want to thank you for teaching me that i do have a voice and how to use my voice. Even when i wanted you to talk to my gerneral ed teachers you stil told me to do it. You showed how to use my voice, you understood me while some teachers didnt. I thank you for not giving up on me and always pushing me to do better and wanting better things for me. I know that i said this before but you have such a great impact on my life i must tell you again.