Introduction to M.

The main problem at 8 Plus was the supervisor. She decided she had it in for me and there was little I could do. It is hard to remember specifics. I think I've blocked most of them out. But, she just harrassed me constantly. And harrassing is not an exaggeration. She never smiled, she never helped, she never said anything positive. She critized my lessons and teaching technique endlessly. She would come into my class DURING my class and start critizing me in front of students. She would stand with a student and me while trying to resolve a conflict and dispute everything I told the student. When she was told to back off and stop coming into my class while in it was in session, she starting writing me notes and have people bring them in and put them on my desk.

I was supposed to have a mentor for my first and second year as a teacher. This never happened. They decided I could have a paraprofessional but all he did was come in and read the paper. When I asked for him to help with discipline, he made a big fuss. Then, he stopped coming.

What were the kids doing? Actually, this group wasn't that bad and I liked many of them. Actually, my first year teaching is the only year that I can remember all of my student's names! I live in their neighborhood too, so I know what happened to many of them.

The best way to describe my students is that they were completely HYPERACTIVE. They didn't sit in their seats, they talked incessently. It was exhausting to quiet them to get a one word sentence in. They bickered with me and each other. They threw things. One student that I didn't like pretentded to go shit in the corner. There was plastic shit there that I didn't know was not real. He had actually simulated going poop in the corner. I was stupidly horrified and they burst into laughter. They ran around the room. They cursed like truck drivers. Shortly after I got pregnant a boy and girl were fulling around while I was bending down helping some kids. The girl threw a dictionary at the boy and it hit my stomach.