Small Town Sunday #3 - Small Town Football

In the fall, small towns are all about football. I'm not necessarily a football person (I like basketball better), but there is something about going to a varsity game on a Friday night. You know fall is coming when you have to get out your stadium seats, blankets and hoodies for the game.

I'm not sure why football is so important to small town people, but it is. Everyone comes out to see the game. There is an excitement in the air that you can just feel.   Young and old, everyone is excited to see their boys win.

I took my two nephews to my school's football game yesterday. Yes...on a Saturday.  We played a team that is from Kansas City, so the game had to be on a Saturday because the other team had so far to travel.  Our team is ranked #5 in the state in our division, and the other team is ranked #1. Quite a game.  Apparently we had a free weekend and no one close wanted to play us because our team is so good...

My nephews don't get to go to games because they are too late at night. NL got to go to one last year, but NJ is too young to stay out that late due to his super early bed time. This is unfortunate because NJ LOVES football; even though the only games he's seen are on TV. My brother isn't a sports guy, so it's a little unusual that one of his sons would be so fascinated by a sport.

I just had to take the boys because it isn't often that we have a Saturday afternoon varsity game. They both had a good time. NJ never took his eyes off the field, which is pretty amazing for a boy under three-years-old. Every time the crowd would cheer, NJ would throw his hands up in the air and cheer right along with them.  He loved it when there was a tackle.  He kept saying, "hit" until I explained it was called a tackle, and explained why they were tackling each other.  After that, he would look up at me and say, "Tackle!"  We had to leave at halftime to get NJ back for his nap (I told him the game was over as I pointed out the playing going back into the field house). I hope to be able to take them both to more games soon; it is so fun to watch them as they watch the game.

I'm Getting Behind Again!

Sorry folks (all 3 of my readers). I've been getting behind in my posting again. I keep thinking of things to write about, but not when I'm around my computer.

Let me just talk about how I'm having to treat one of my classes like a bunch of little kids. Our school is a consolidated school and isn't in the middle of either town. Because of that, the drivers are not released at 3:00. Instead, they are held in classes until all the buses have gotten well away from the high school. This is probably due to the fact that teenagers are terrible drivers, especially when getting away from the place they dislike the most!

I have always felt that this 12 minutes or so was the kids' time and I just let them talk among themselves as long as it didn't get out of hand. Not this year! This year my 7th hour class has about 5 boys in it that are good friends. Their idea of being a good friend is to constantly harass, bully, put-down and make fun of each other. Which would be fine...if they weren't doing it in my class. It is hard enough to keep them from doing it during class time, but it was impossible once the bus riders had left the room.

I'm not sure why boys (and these are worse than any I've seen before) feel it is necessary to put each other down and make fun of each other all the time. There's a lot of "mama" jokes and calling each other names...all in the sake of fun. Add into the mix that these boys HATE English.They are country boys through and through and do not see any need for English class. "I speak good English, what do I need that class fer?"

Anyway...they were behaving terribly during this down time. After some consultations with the principal and vice principal, we decided the class should be kept busy, even though class was over.

I have chosen SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). During SSR time, there is absolutely NO TALKING! And no grade, so it's not like they are doing an extra assignment that the other students who ride a bus don't have to do. Boy do they HATE this. None of these kids are readers to begin with. I am even reading with them.

I gave them a week to get used to the idea with me shushing them and reminding them not to talk before I finally wrote two boys up (discipline referral) on Friday for talking (one was trying to ask me a question). SSR = NO TALKING! They are even more fired up about it now. But they were good today. They grumbled, but once I told them that we were starting and the anyone who talked would be written up, they all started reading (or at least pretending to read).

I've told them if they can go a reasonable length of time (I'm thinking 2 weeks), without causing troubles in class, I will consider doing something besides SSR at the end of the day. They have yet to be able to go a full day without someone talking smack to someone else.

Teachers just aren't paid enough. As it is I spend countless hours preparing lessons and grading papers, but it's discipline and classroom management issues like these that really show we're not paid enough. Just because your "little angel" is fine at home, doesn't mean that they act the same way when in a room with multiple hormone producing kids their age!