Classroom woes

After witnessing a high school classroom for the first time since I'd been a student, I returned to my own college classroom, hoping for the relief that comes with knowing that one's students are better than others'. I was disappointed.

On Wednesday, my 2 p.m. class argued with me during a quiz--during a quiz! The way I conduct my quizzes is to call out the questions to them; that way, stragglers are punished for straggling because missed questions are not repeated for latecomers. As I called out questions, my class, who has had several other quizzes thus far, talked the entire time--to me! They were arguing, pleading, wondering aloud, goading me for hints. I had never seen such ridiculous behavior from them all semester. I finally got to a point where I nearly told them to shut up, but I was able to restrain myself mostly. The rest of class was a continuation of that scene as they talked loudly throughout my lecture, trying to get themselves and each other off-topic. Although they were talking to me rather than each other during the quiz and lecture, I found it incredibly distracting for the learning of their classmates. I'll get into learning environments in a moment.

On Friday, my 2 p.m. class decided that they felt like whining. I walked in, and the first sentence directed to me was, "Ms. W, do we have a quiz today?" (Note: this should be read in a whiny voice.) I did not make eye contact and instead looked directly at my notes and said, "No." The student sighed in relief...and then asked, tentatively, "Oh...does that mean we have to have one of those in-class reading responses then?" I just smiled at her and she responded, "NO! Can we please have a quiz instead?? Please??" I shook my head and just went to the board to write the assignment up.

As I had my back turned toward them, I heard, "Oh man, I hate it when it rains. I'm so tired. I can't believe we have to write today. I know, I just had a lot of writing in my last class. Yeah, I had a test in my last class. I have a huge math test after this one, and just want to study today in class instead. Man, my hand is going to hurt so bad after this. My head is going to hurt so bad after this! I just want to go home. Heh, I think I feel like complaining today. Me too, I feel like complaining today, too. Yeah, me too." At this time, I whipped around and said, "How about we all stop complaining, RIGHT NOW?" My students shut up and hung their heads down.

Then, I went on with the lesson for the day, which was to write for the whole hour, focusing almost entirely on arguable thesis statements. I told them, "You will get your second paper assignment next week sometime, and you will not write the same level of papers as you did for the first assignment. They did not meet expectations, and I am not grading papers like that again." So, Friday's in-class response had the goal of practicing argumentation skills. My 2 p.m. class mostly stopped annoying me at that point, although I did have to tell a student to take out his earbuds. He looked at me as if completely stunned and confused--uhm, excuse me, I have a very clear "no cell phones, no music devices" policy. Turn off the damn iPod and write your response; I don't care if music helps you write better. Not in class.

My 3 p.m. class, which is generally as entertaining as an oil painting, generally followed the rules, except that they seemed to blank when I told them they'd be writing for the entire class time. I had a few students come up to me (all packed up and ready to go) at twenty-past to turn in their papers and leave. I shook my head and said, "Sit back down. There's thirty minutes left in class." They'd respond, "But Ms. W, I'm done." I'd respond, "No, you're not. Keep working on it and make it stronger than it is now." What stunned me was that after this exchange took place with one student (loudly in front of a class who made eye contact with me while I reprimanded him), students still attempted to leave early. They got antsy with a couple minutes left in class, but I am not interested in being bullied into dismissing class. So, I lingered a little while on my final class announcements before allowing them to leave.

The frustrations of teaching this age group: they truly believe that they are entitled to an education which they can command to their whims.