It's that time of year. Exams approach, and end of quarter projects are due. In my eighth-grade class, this means a 3-5 page research paper and a History test (which, actually, they are taking as I type this--the only moments of quiet I will have today as even my planning periods have been taken over by students asking about papers).
The thing about stress is that it grows with company. I can manage my own stress. I have my quiet time, my dog, my Netflix account, and a pretty good sense of time management. What I can't deal with is the stress of 65 eighth graders whose lives are ending because of three measly pages. It leaks out of them and suddenly I find myself with heartburn over someone's broken printer.
Causal Factor: far too much empathy for other people's stress.
Contributing Factor #1: my planning periods, which were my usual quiet time to recuperate and catch up on my work, are now gone.
Contributing Factor #2: students' stress leaks into their parents when they are home; this osmosis causes said parents to email me, which piles even more onto this already trembling, rickety bridge metaphor I have going here.
Contributing Factor #3: an excess amount of after-school holiday commitments leaves my evenings rushed, and again, missing that quiet alone time.
Some people take this opportunity to become larger-than-life dynamos--I imagine them to be like Italian New Yorkers in a pizza shop, simultaneously tossing the dough, stirring the sauce, and chopping the veggies, all while yelling orders across the kitchen. I admire these people. Someday, I want to be one of these people. These people are awesome. And a little scary.
Then, cowering under a serving table in the back room, there are the people who break apart completely and become shells of misinformation and distraction, as the two boys below have demonstrated this morning:
Chris: (runs into my room in between classes) "Do you have a ladder?"
Me: (sure that I've misheard) "A what? A ladder?"
Chris: "You know. (looks at me as if I'm the one who's not understanding) A ladder."
Me: "Um. Look around the room. Do you see a ladder?"
Chris: (just looks at me)
Me: "Chris. I don't have a ladder."
Chris: "But...my hackey sack is on the roof."
Me: "...Still don't have a ladder."
(same kid, later during that class period)
Chris: (comes to me as I'm handing out rough drafts) "I have an idea for how to get the hackey sacks off the roof."
Me: "That's great, but this is English class. We don't solve hackey sack problems in English class. Know what we do solve? Poor grammar. Can you please go work on your rough draft?"
(same kid, yet another 20 minutes later in class)
Chris: (stops working on his paper revision, comes up to my desk) "Ms. Sefcik, can I go to the office?"
Me: (warily) "Why?"
Chris: "Um, well, I need to ask Ms. J to call someone for me."
Me: "You need her to call someone?"
Chris: "Yeah, I need the maintenance department to do something for me."
Me: "For the last time. Forget about the hackey sack issue. Seriously."
Chris: (goes back to his desk and stares blankly at the ground)
Before the history test:
Me: "Okay, everybody listen up. There's one part of this test that I think might trip a few of you up, so I'm going to demonstrate right now. Look on the back page, where the matching section is. In order to use this with the scantron, I had to make the answer letters in combinations, so we have 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' 'D,' and 'E' first. Then, you see it starts with 'AB,' 'AC,' etc. If your answer choice has more than one letter, you just fill in both of those letters in that space."
(I go to the board)
Me: "Here--I'm going to draw you an example. If the answer to #45 is 'AB,' I fill in the 'A' bubble and the 'B' bubble. See?"
General Student population: "Okayyyy."
Me: "Is anyone confused?"
Greg: "I am."
Me: "Okay, what's confusing?"
Greg: "Everything."
Me: "Okay, which part do I need to explain more?"
Greg: "All of it."
(pause)
Me: "All righty then. Let's go ahead and start and if you have any questions, come ask me."
During the history test:
Greg: (holds out his test and scantron) "Can you explain this to me one more time? So, if the answer says 'AE,' we write 'A' and 'E'?"
Me: "Yep, that's how it works."
Greg: "Okay." (turns to go)
Me: "Wait!" (I pull his scantron sheet closer) "Did you do this in pen?"
Greg: "Uh. Yeah. Were we supposed to use pencil?"
Me: "Greg. It's a SCANTRON. Yes, you're supposed to use pencil. How many scantrons have you used in your life?"
Greg: "Um. A lot."
Me: "And have you ever, on any of those scantrons, used pen?"
Greg: "Uh. No."
Me: "So...?"
Greg: "I don't know."
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